From Walmart Worker to Walmart Wizard
04-24-2017
, 10:09 AM
Quote:
I wanted to make a post in here before bed regarding some stuff I've discovered in the last ~year or so, for two reasons:
1) There comes a lot of points where I want to give in. I want to write in here to part cement the idea for myself that this is the path I need to take and I need to endure this ****.
2) Possibly a few guys reading (or one of the several sexy women reading this thread) will have things not going the best for them atm, but I want them to know that if they stay true to themselves there is a bright future ahead.
Here is my main idea: The path to a great life will be difficult as **** (for most of us)...but it is so necessary.
Here is why I think the path needs to be difficult:
Let's look at this from a statistical perspective: so many things follow the normal distribution in the world. A great portion of the masses fall into the category of average, and less amounts fall into the extremes. Simply put: if you follow the same path as the masses and do the same stuff as the masses, you will likely fall within the constraints of the masses. Perpetual mediocrity. This can be everything from fitness to poker to life decisions to dating to wealth etc etc.
So somewhat often I question a lot of the choices I've been making from day to day. It would be so easy to just go out and get innebriated af 3 nights per week, or revert back to old eating habits, let toxic people get the best of me, or start hitting up ex-gf(s). The main issue is that if you keep doing the same **** you've always done, you will get the same results you've always had.
I can't lie it's difficult eating clean, or doing intense workouts, or getting out of my comfort zone in the dating scene. All the nights going out and getting rejected/slapped in the face, I know, will be well worth it. (Have had a lot of great experiences and nights out as well but will keep the tone negative for the sake of the post
)
The reason why a lot of relationships fail is because guys don't work on themselves enough imo. You can make a lot of excuses for why relationships fail (and you will hear them a tonne: she was a slut, she cheated, she was a *****, she's crazy etc etc) The bottom line is: if you aren't getting the relationship you want: it is probably your fault.
To make a quick point of it...if you aren't confident, driven, experienced, happy on your own...you won't get that from another person. If you have weaknesses as a man that will become amplified in a relationship.
For example: if you lack self confidence and self worth you will let your gf/friends walk all over you because you have a deep rooted fear of not being able to find a substitute...aka scarcity. When you operate in scarcity you are ****ed! Your partner will have all of the negotiating power and lose respect for you etc etc
I'm pretty tired atm so a lot of that is probably a massive ramble but hopefully it makes some sense. This leads me to my point that being on your own and following your own path is completely necessary (for at least some time). It can be/will be/is difficult at times but just know if we keep working on ourselves and staying true to our values variance will hopefully be kind to us in the long run
rant over ty for reading and sweet dreams d00ds
I wanted to make a post in here before bed regarding some stuff I've discovered in the last ~year or so, for two reasons:
1) There comes a lot of points where I want to give in. I want to write in here to part cement the idea for myself that this is the path I need to take and I need to endure this ****.
2) Possibly a few guys reading (or one of the several sexy women reading this thread) will have things not going the best for them atm, but I want them to know that if they stay true to themselves there is a bright future ahead.
Here is my main idea: The path to a great life will be difficult as **** (for most of us)...but it is so necessary.
Here is why I think the path needs to be difficult:
Let's look at this from a statistical perspective: so many things follow the normal distribution in the world. A great portion of the masses fall into the category of average, and less amounts fall into the extremes. Simply put: if you follow the same path as the masses and do the same stuff as the masses, you will likely fall within the constraints of the masses. Perpetual mediocrity. This can be everything from fitness to poker to life decisions to dating to wealth etc etc.
So somewhat often I question a lot of the choices I've been making from day to day. It would be so easy to just go out and get innebriated af 3 nights per week, or revert back to old eating habits, let toxic people get the best of me, or start hitting up ex-gf(s). The main issue is that if you keep doing the same **** you've always done, you will get the same results you've always had.
I can't lie it's difficult eating clean, or doing intense workouts, or getting out of my comfort zone in the dating scene. All the nights going out and getting rejected/slapped in the face, I know, will be well worth it. (Have had a lot of great experiences and nights out as well but will keep the tone negative for the sake of the post
) The reason why a lot of relationships fail is because guys don't work on themselves enough imo. You can make a lot of excuses for why relationships fail (and you will hear them a tonne: she was a slut, she cheated, she was a *****, she's crazy etc etc) The bottom line is: if you aren't getting the relationship you want: it is probably your fault.
To make a quick point of it...if you aren't confident, driven, experienced, happy on your own...you won't get that from another person. If you have weaknesses as a man that will become amplified in a relationship.
For example: if you lack self confidence and self worth you will let your gf/friends walk all over you because you have a deep rooted fear of not being able to find a substitute...aka scarcity. When you operate in scarcity you are ****ed! Your partner will have all of the negotiating power and lose respect for you etc etc
I'm pretty tired atm so a lot of that is probably a massive ramble but hopefully it makes some sense. This leads me to my point that being on your own and following your own path is completely necessary (for at least some time). It can be/will be/is difficult at times but just know if we keep working on ourselves and staying true to our values variance will hopefully be kind to us in the long run
rant over ty for reading and sweet dreams d00ds
It's true what you've said, but imo relationships also fail because they become a routine. Those new experiences, that phase at the beggining of the relationship of knowing each other...it's dificult to mantain that, it's a team work!
About those saver missing...
Portuguese...
This gonna be a blast!
04-24-2017
, 11:42 PM
Progress Report:
Health:
Workouts Completed this week: (2/4)
Times leaving diet guidelines: 3
20 Minute Meditation Session: 6/7
Books Read: 0/1
Body Weight +/-: -11 lbs. (since beginning of year)
Wealth:
Training Videos Watched: 1/1
Hours in the lab: 2/2
Sessions played: 3/4
Hours put into researching new avenues of revenue generation: 0
Weekly Proft: +3344
Yearly Profit: +11247
Live Poker Profit This Year: +5918
Book Review: Didn't get around to reading this week. I want to read "Tools of Titans" by Tim Ferriss this week.
Story of Leaving Comfort Zone: This isn't really a huge deal or anything but volunteered myself to be captain of intramural soccer team. I usually just avoid these types of roles because they involve needless hassle and organization etc but I thought **** it why not take on the responsibility.
Hands:
https://www.boomplayer.com/23602121_09ECFF2FEE
villain is russian fish. had like the nut worst sunday but still feel like i have to jam river. afterall, a correct value betting strategy involves value owning yourself sometimes imo. felt gross haha
https://www.boomplayer.com/23598868_3FDA3B6374
disaster
https://www.boomplayer.com/23596230_218E5219DA
another disaster vs poker duffy. kinda owned myslef here.
Random Rant of the Week:
Bleh, just looking back at those hands gives me nightmares from my Sunday session. Ironically, the session before that I had a huge day getting 2nd in the big 33 BB and ft'd the BB 55, so I was feeling pretty motivated leading up to sunday.
Took a responsible line of not going out drinking Saturday night. Went to dinner with a couple friends and then just came home and did some lab work. Woke early as I usually do on Sundays, and really didn't feel great. Had some resemblance of the beginning of a cold w/ sore throat and foggy mind etc. Regretfully, I pushed through it and just couldn't pull it together. Got medicated af before the grind w/ advil, vitamin c, copious amounts of coffee etc but ran HORRID. literally cashed like 2-3 tourneys all day
Still feel pretty "off" so I think it's best to take time off until I feel motivated again.
As for everything else, I've sort of fell off the rails the last few weeks. Feeling so indifferent about everything but I think my vacation out to Alberta next week should really help me regain my perspective. Gonna go on some nature hikes this week and start the intramural season which I think will also help me get back on track!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Don't let the expectations and opinions of other people affect your decisions. It's your life, not theirs. Do what matters most to you; do what makes you feel alive and happy. Don't let the expectations and ideas of others limit who you are. If you let others tell you who you are, you are living their reality — not yours. There is more to life than pleasing people. There is much more to life than following others' prescribed path. There is so much more to life than what you experience right now. You need to decide who you are for yourself. Become a whole being. Adventure.”
― Roy T. Bennett
This week I want to talk about authenticity. Why? I've come to believe that we as humans, CRAVE this. We crave others who are authentic and they can be real with us. We want to get to our default of acting authentic...our true selves. Finding and being our true selves is our baseline...so where do we go wrong?
Warning:
Over thousands of years humans have traveled in tribes of ~100 people. What happens if your tribe abandons you?
-You starve and die
-You get eaten by a sabre tooth tiger
-You live by your lonesome and are deprived of the social experiences you need for survival.
Let's put it this way: being accepted by your tribe was imperative for survival.
We are hard wired to conform to the norms of a group because survival is the most primal instinct of all beings and conformity meant survival.
Fast forward a few thousand years to 2017...The world's population has now succeeded 7 Billion people and our instincts are still the same as they were when sabre tooth tigers and wooly mammoths roamed the earth.
Somewhere along our live's paths we stop acting authentic because if our family's abandon us, we die. If our family scrutinizes us for liking girls/guys, sports/cars/barbies/pokemon, pink/blue/yellow/black/brown, or whatever else...we learn to suppress that.
If we get scrutinized for being loud in public, or talking to a stranger, or having "cooties" etc we suppress that. Sadly, this subconscious suppression follows us into adult life. This constant desire to conform ensues. To conform, we learn to put on a "front". Moreover, some type of "facade" that masks what we repress, because we crave acceptance.
Everyone puts on these "fronts" that make them socially acceptable. I'm sure we've all met the "overly fake and friendly person", "the class clown", "the tough guy", etc etc
We've also probably met (and appreciated) the guy or girl who we connected with on a deep level because they could be completely comfortable with themselves. They didn't hide anything and were just real people.
It's my belief that most of us resonate deeply with this type of "real/authentic" energy and people are deeply attracted to this type of stuff. It shows that they've been accepted for their true selves and can make/lead with our own decisions. So many people are just sheep wanting to be led (I've definitely fallen under that category in the past).
Afterall, who was leading these tribes and empowering some of the great developments we've made as a race? Martin Luther King didn't conform to social norms and propelled a movement that bettered the lives of millions of people (and that's just one example).
Rejection ****ing sucks and we hate it so much as a species. We could have 99 great experiences with one behaviour, and one bad one...and we would probably repress that behaviour.
Sorry for the huge rant (bravo if you got through it all). I feel I should maybe start making a better effort to organize these rants and map my thoughts before randomly spewing onto the page as I go. But thats half the fun of ranting isnt it
GL this week my bros may the power of the poker gods be with you
Health:
Workouts Completed this week: (2/4)
Times leaving diet guidelines: 3
20 Minute Meditation Session: 6/7
Books Read: 0/1
Body Weight +/-: -11 lbs. (since beginning of year)
Wealth:
Training Videos Watched: 1/1
Hours in the lab: 2/2
Sessions played: 3/4
Hours put into researching new avenues of revenue generation: 0
Weekly Proft: +3344
Yearly Profit: +11247
Live Poker Profit This Year: +5918
Book Review: Didn't get around to reading this week. I want to read "Tools of Titans" by Tim Ferriss this week.
Story of Leaving Comfort Zone: This isn't really a huge deal or anything but volunteered myself to be captain of intramural soccer team. I usually just avoid these types of roles because they involve needless hassle and organization etc but I thought **** it why not take on the responsibility.
Hands:
https://www.boomplayer.com/23602121_09ECFF2FEE
villain is russian fish. had like the nut worst sunday but still feel like i have to jam river. afterall, a correct value betting strategy involves value owning yourself sometimes imo. felt gross haha
https://www.boomplayer.com/23598868_3FDA3B6374
disaster
https://www.boomplayer.com/23596230_218E5219DA
another disaster vs poker duffy. kinda owned myslef here.
Random Rant of the Week:
Bleh, just looking back at those hands gives me nightmares from my Sunday session. Ironically, the session before that I had a huge day getting 2nd in the big 33 BB and ft'd the BB 55, so I was feeling pretty motivated leading up to sunday.
Took a responsible line of not going out drinking Saturday night. Went to dinner with a couple friends and then just came home and did some lab work. Woke early as I usually do on Sundays, and really didn't feel great. Had some resemblance of the beginning of a cold w/ sore throat and foggy mind etc. Regretfully, I pushed through it and just couldn't pull it together. Got medicated af before the grind w/ advil, vitamin c, copious amounts of coffee etc but ran HORRID. literally cashed like 2-3 tourneys all day
Still feel pretty "off" so I think it's best to take time off until I feel motivated again.
As for everything else, I've sort of fell off the rails the last few weeks. Feeling so indifferent about everything but I think my vacation out to Alberta next week should really help me regain my perspective. Gonna go on some nature hikes this week and start the intramural season which I think will also help me get back on track!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Don't let the expectations and opinions of other people affect your decisions. It's your life, not theirs. Do what matters most to you; do what makes you feel alive and happy. Don't let the expectations and ideas of others limit who you are. If you let others tell you who you are, you are living their reality — not yours. There is more to life than pleasing people. There is much more to life than following others' prescribed path. There is so much more to life than what you experience right now. You need to decide who you are for yourself. Become a whole being. Adventure.”
― Roy T. Bennett
This week I want to talk about authenticity. Why? I've come to believe that we as humans, CRAVE this. We crave others who are authentic and they can be real with us. We want to get to our default of acting authentic...our true selves. Finding and being our true selves is our baseline...so where do we go wrong?
Warning:
Spoiler:
Over thousands of years humans have traveled in tribes of ~100 people. What happens if your tribe abandons you?
-You starve and die
-You get eaten by a sabre tooth tiger
-You live by your lonesome and are deprived of the social experiences you need for survival.
Let's put it this way: being accepted by your tribe was imperative for survival.
We are hard wired to conform to the norms of a group because survival is the most primal instinct of all beings and conformity meant survival.
Fast forward a few thousand years to 2017...The world's population has now succeeded 7 Billion people and our instincts are still the same as they were when sabre tooth tigers and wooly mammoths roamed the earth.
Somewhere along our live's paths we stop acting authentic because if our family's abandon us, we die. If our family scrutinizes us for liking girls/guys, sports/cars/barbies/pokemon, pink/blue/yellow/black/brown, or whatever else...we learn to suppress that.
If we get scrutinized for being loud in public, or talking to a stranger, or having "cooties" etc we suppress that. Sadly, this subconscious suppression follows us into adult life. This constant desire to conform ensues. To conform, we learn to put on a "front". Moreover, some type of "facade" that masks what we repress, because we crave acceptance.
Everyone puts on these "fronts" that make them socially acceptable. I'm sure we've all met the "overly fake and friendly person", "the class clown", "the tough guy", etc etc
We've also probably met (and appreciated) the guy or girl who we connected with on a deep level because they could be completely comfortable with themselves. They didn't hide anything and were just real people.
It's my belief that most of us resonate deeply with this type of "real/authentic" energy and people are deeply attracted to this type of stuff. It shows that they've been accepted for their true selves and can make/lead with our own decisions. So many people are just sheep wanting to be led (I've definitely fallen under that category in the past).
Afterall, who was leading these tribes and empowering some of the great developments we've made as a race? Martin Luther King didn't conform to social norms and propelled a movement that bettered the lives of millions of people (and that's just one example).
Rejection ****ing sucks and we hate it so much as a species. We could have 99 great experiences with one behaviour, and one bad one...and we would probably repress that behaviour.
Sorry for the huge rant (bravo if you got through it all). I feel I should maybe start making a better effort to organize these rants and map my thoughts before randomly spewing onto the page as I go. But thats half the fun of ranting isnt it
GL this week my bros may the power of the poker gods be with you
04-25-2017
, 12:48 AM
Awesome update! A couple things I have to comment on.
I noticed you said that yesterday you were feeling 100% before the Sunday grind and had to drink a bunch of coffee, take medicine etc. to get through it. When you consider the amount of focus you need playing online MTTs, on a Sunday, with a reasonably high table count and fairly high ABI AND you pretty much needed to take medications just to get through the grind, it's an absolute recipe for disaster. Playing a Sunday session is mentally draining as is, doing it when feeling kind of down is the nut low. Generally if I'm feeling down but feel inclined to fire a session, I'll lower my table count and cut out the higher end of my buyin range so not as much focus/thinking is needed, or just do something else and play another day where I'm feeling up for it and my EV will be much higher for the day.
Idk where some of your rants come out of but reading them is ****ing gold and extremely informing, you just might have a future career in philosophy.
Rants are what they are, rants. Organization is not part of a rant and it wouldn't be as real if you tried organizing the piece so don't worry about it at all. This is your blog and your space to write whatever you want to!
GL on the grind, I know you'll come back strong when you're ready to.
I noticed you said that yesterday you were feeling 100% before the Sunday grind and had to drink a bunch of coffee, take medicine etc. to get through it. When you consider the amount of focus you need playing online MTTs, on a Sunday, with a reasonably high table count and fairly high ABI AND you pretty much needed to take medications just to get through the grind, it's an absolute recipe for disaster. Playing a Sunday session is mentally draining as is, doing it when feeling kind of down is the nut low. Generally if I'm feeling down but feel inclined to fire a session, I'll lower my table count and cut out the higher end of my buyin range so not as much focus/thinking is needed, or just do something else and play another day where I'm feeling up for it and my EV will be much higher for the day.
Idk where some of your rants come out of but reading them is ****ing gold and extremely informing, you just might have a future career in philosophy.
Rants are what they are, rants. Organization is not part of a rant and it wouldn't be as real if you tried organizing the piece so don't worry about it at all. This is your blog and your space to write whatever you want to!
GL on the grind, I know you'll come back strong when you're ready to.
04-25-2017
, 12:48 PM
Thanks for the post Trent. I agree with everything you said about playing when not feeling up to par. It's funny because irl people are encouraged for going the extra mile when they aren't feeling well but in poker it's just detrimental to our bottom line and unacceptable. It kills me to miss a Sunday so next time I think I'll just keep table counts lower and allow myself to sleep in until I'm ready.
Most of the stuff I write about I get from either just random recurring thoughts that come to my head or I hear them in videos/books/articles/conversations and I like to elaborate on what I hear. My PGC is a fitting place to vent about some of the stuff I feel like ranting about because nobody is forced to listen/read against their will I know it isn't for everybody but I know a lot of guys have told me they enjoy reading it etc and it's good because that keeps me motivated!
Most of the stuff I write about I get from either just random recurring thoughts that come to my head or I hear them in videos/books/articles/conversations and I like to elaborate on what I hear. My PGC is a fitting place to vent about some of the stuff I feel like ranting about because nobody is forced to listen/read against their will
I know it isn't for everybody but I know a lot of guys have told me they enjoy reading it etc and it's good because that keeps me motivated!
04-26-2017
, 01:42 AM
Ouch
What sport were you guys playin? Excuse to not move for all of scoop? xD
What sport were you guys playin? Excuse to not move for all of scoop? xD
04-26-2017
, 07:46 PM
confirmed fractured base of thumb gonna be in a cast 4-6 weeks. very tough to type so updates during that time prob gonna be quick point form and to the point
already getting tilted by not being able to do a lot of the stuff i take for granted everyday. guess that will give me some perspective
gonna be in a cast 4-6 weeks. very tough to type so updates during that time prob gonna be quick point form and to the point already getting tilted by not being able to do a lot of the stuff i take for granted everyday. guess that will give me some perspective
05-01-2017
, 02:11 AM
Today was an unusual Sunday.
Regretfully, and irresponsibly, I was too hungover and not in a comfortable frame physically or mentally to play today. Congrats to all the regs out there today who gained a free edge on me today for just showing up to battle.
So I was asked to attend a birthday party a few days ago by some friends for yesterday (Saturday). Unfortunately, this coincided with my ~weekly home game where I've stereotypically printed money over the last few years. Not to mention, drinking copious amounts of alcohol the day prior to a Sunday session do not go well together. I really wanted to just be anti social and play the pokerz all weekend but decided that my social/relationship life is one that needs more work atm than my poker does. So I said fk it I'm gonna be in grind lockdown for SCOOP may as well do something that is a little less easy and go out and let loose.
Despite waking up @ 11 am with the room spinning and shivering my ass off, missing my Sunday grind, and feeling like aids all day...I had a blast. Kicked ass at beer pong, met some cool people, and had a nice relaxing easy going Sunday One thing I'm proud of this year is that I've been enjoying going out a lot more and becoming more comfortable with it. If I could say one positive thing about the year thus far it would be that my social anxiety has been decreasing tremendously. By just constantly getting into the habit of reinforcing positive thoughts, those thoughts have become a mindset and my baseline. Although I haven't put in the work into poker or fitness/nutrition yet this year I'm quite proud of my improvement in mindset. I will say though the day I fly out West on Wednesday it's time to buckle down and start kicking some ass in poker/fitness/nutrition.
I'm not gonna post my usual weekly update this week because I spent a bunch of time in the hospital with my hand and couldn't workout and really only played about 1 poker session. Also want to just get a fresh start for when I get to Alberta with a clean slate. I truly think by the end of this year I will be achieving all the goals I set out at the start of the year. Gonna be a lot of work but it's time to buckle down!
Random Rant of the Week
One thing I've learned this year is that perspective is everything in life. The story that you tell yourself everyday is so often the one that comes true. There are often different ways to perceive any situation (and often all perceptions have some truth). If you often hold a positive perspective you will probably attract other positive people. If you have a negative perspective and have pessimistic viewpoints on everything, you will probably attract negative people.
I want to share a sad story about a guy who lived across the road from me growing up (our families still live in the same houses). He was born in 1991 I was born in 1992 so he was a grade ahead of me but only separated birthdays of a few months. We never had any problems with each other and were friendly etc but we were just very different kids so we didn't hang out much. I talked to him here and there and he gave me some tutoring for some math classes in high school. Fast forward to ~2012 and we were both entering our early days of University. As my first year or so was going completely miserable for me, I really felt like it was torture to get through it. During that year my mindset went to complete **** and I put on a lot of weight. I started to resonate more with negative energy and my thought looping patterns always seemed to revert back to the negative. To put it in short, I was really stuck in a funk.
This brings me back to my neighbour from across the street. Midway through that University year he was experiencing a lot of sickness and needed to take a few weeks break from school. After already winning his first battle with cancer, his doctors found a tumor the size of a small fetus in him. Throughout his battle with all of the chemotherapy/operations/treatments etc... he stayed strong and updated everyone with facebook statuses everyday. Although his situation was awful he managed to stay in a positive mind frame and enjoyed writing updates that shed a little bit of light and humor on it. I'll never forget his last update saying things had taken a big turn for the worse and there was a chance that he wouldn't make it out alive. Sadly, he passed away shortly after that post. I'll never forget his positive outlook in life and I really respect him for his positive outlook through battle. I wish I could tell him that now.
After writing that bit above it's tough to say I have anything tough in life. I really don't to tell you the truth.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ever notice how people will react with how you feel or the energy you give off? The law of state transference suggests that if you go into an interaction feeling happy/upbeat and giving off positive vibes, the other person will feel that and give off the same. This obviously applies as well if you go into an interaction feeling down in the dumps and negative. Well, try to apply this in real life. Just tell yourself positive stories in your head and try to stay positive. I promise you will experience tremendous gains by making this small adjustment. Instead of going into an interaction worrying about getting judged for your insecurities or not being liked etc just tell yourself that everyone else is probably nervous too and thinking the same thing. Go in with the mindset that you want to share good experiences with others and if they reject you/give a negative reaction who cares.
1) It's probably 90% their own problems that cause them to react that way
2) Not everyone has to like you.
3) Most people will like you 10x more for just being yourself. A confident and happy person conveys a million subtle/sub-conscious messages that people will love.
That's just a little thing I've really discovered this year that makes a massive difference. My baseline happiness seems to be increasing quite substantially and I truly think it's from a few subtle changes in mindset.
“The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well, on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be.” -Douglas Adams
Regretfully, and irresponsibly, I was too hungover and not in a comfortable frame physically or mentally to play today. Congrats to all the regs out there today who gained a free edge on me today for just showing up to battle.
So I was asked to attend a birthday party a few days ago by some friends for yesterday (Saturday). Unfortunately, this coincided with my ~weekly home game where I've stereotypically printed money over the last few years. Not to mention, drinking copious amounts of alcohol the day prior to a Sunday session do not go well together. I really wanted to just be anti social and play the pokerz all weekend but decided that my social/relationship life is one that needs more work atm than my poker does. So I said fk it I'm gonna be in grind lockdown for SCOOP may as well do something that is a little less easy and go out and let loose.
Despite waking up @ 11 am with the room spinning and shivering my ass off, missing my Sunday grind, and feeling like aids all day...I had a blast. Kicked ass at beer pong, met some cool people, and had a nice relaxing easy going Sunday
One thing I'm proud of this year is that I've been enjoying going out a lot more and becoming more comfortable with it. If I could say one positive thing about the year thus far it would be that my social anxiety has been decreasing tremendously. By just constantly getting into the habit of reinforcing positive thoughts, those thoughts have become a mindset and my baseline. Although I haven't put in the work into poker or fitness/nutrition yet this year I'm quite proud of my improvement in mindset. I will say though the day I fly out West on Wednesday it's time to buckle down and start kicking some ass in poker/fitness/nutrition.I'm not gonna post my usual weekly update this week because I spent a bunch of time in the hospital with my hand and couldn't workout and really only played about 1 poker session. Also want to just get a fresh start for when I get to Alberta with a clean slate. I truly think by the end of this year I will be achieving all the goals I set out at the start of the year. Gonna be a lot of work but it's time to buckle down!
Random Rant of the Week
One thing I've learned this year is that perspective is everything in life. The story that you tell yourself everyday is so often the one that comes true. There are often different ways to perceive any situation (and often all perceptions have some truth). If you often hold a positive perspective you will probably attract other positive people. If you have a negative perspective and have pessimistic viewpoints on everything, you will probably attract negative people.
I want to share a sad story about a guy who lived across the road from me growing up (our families still live in the same houses). He was born in 1991 I was born in 1992 so he was a grade ahead of me but only separated birthdays of a few months. We never had any problems with each other and were friendly etc but we were just very different kids so we didn't hang out much. I talked to him here and there and he gave me some tutoring for some math classes in high school. Fast forward to ~2012 and we were both entering our early days of University. As my first year or so was going completely miserable for me, I really felt like it was torture to get through it. During that year my mindset went to complete **** and I put on a lot of weight. I started to resonate more with negative energy and my thought looping patterns always seemed to revert back to the negative. To put it in short, I was really stuck in a funk.
This brings me back to my neighbour from across the street. Midway through that University year he was experiencing a lot of sickness and needed to take a few weeks break from school. After already winning his first battle with cancer, his doctors found a tumor the size of a small fetus in him. Throughout his battle with all of the chemotherapy/operations/treatments etc... he stayed strong and updated everyone with facebook statuses everyday. Although his situation was awful he managed to stay in a positive mind frame and enjoyed writing updates that shed a little bit of light and humor on it. I'll never forget his last update saying things had taken a big turn for the worse and there was a chance that he wouldn't make it out alive. Sadly, he passed away shortly after that post. I'll never forget his positive outlook in life and I really respect him for his positive outlook through battle. I wish I could tell him that now.
After writing that bit above it's tough to say I have anything tough in life. I really don't to tell you the truth.
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Ever notice how people will react with how you feel or the energy you give off? The law of state transference suggests that if you go into an interaction feeling happy/upbeat and giving off positive vibes, the other person will feel that and give off the same. This obviously applies as well if you go into an interaction feeling down in the dumps and negative. Well, try to apply this in real life. Just tell yourself positive stories in your head and try to stay positive. I promise you will experience tremendous gains by making this small adjustment. Instead of going into an interaction worrying about getting judged for your insecurities or not being liked etc just tell yourself that everyone else is probably nervous too and thinking the same thing. Go in with the mindset that you want to share good experiences with others and if they reject you/give a negative reaction who cares.
1) It's probably 90% their own problems that cause them to react that way
2) Not everyone has to like you.
3) Most people will like you 10x more for just being yourself. A confident and happy person conveys a million subtle/sub-conscious messages that people will love.
That's just a little thing I've really discovered this year that makes a massive difference. My baseline happiness seems to be increasing quite substantially and I truly think it's from a few subtle changes in mindset.
“The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well, on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be.” -Douglas Adams
05-01-2017
, 01:47 PM
Oh yeah, here's a few hands from the week:
https://www.boomplayer.com/23650050_B92BB8745D
this was a pretty cringey hand vs a fairly abc mediocre reg. he should be opening pretty wide on the button here so i think 3 betting for value is probably the best line (or flat?) on flop i think checking is probably a good start but probably fine to mix in some small c bets. (folding out hands with decent equity share such as KQ is a big win.) i think checking all my over pairs, some 9x, AK AQ AJ etc is prob the best tho and mixing in some small bets with draws/ some 9x/air.
turn i think i should be checking with a high frequency here (possibly all range?) maybe jam club draws J10, 9x?
river is pretty interesting. felt like jamming can rep so many strong hands and so seldomly a bluff. i can have 9x, KQ AQ JQ, 88, AA KK QQ.
idk what u guys think?
https://www.boomplayer.com/23647223_89B00FF6DE
i hate progs. prob pre flop im making a big mistake but there was 2 blasters in the hand with decent bounties
https://www.boomplayer.com/23647137_00B57F024F
sometimes i just feel like running it
let me know what u guys think
hospital to visit specialist for my hand tomorrow then flight leaves early Wednesday morning. prob will update when i get to 'burta.
gl my sons
https://www.boomplayer.com/23650050_B92BB8745D
this was a pretty cringey hand vs a fairly abc mediocre reg. he should be opening pretty wide on the button here so i think 3 betting for value is probably the best line (or flat?) on flop i think checking is probably a good start but probably fine to mix in some small c bets. (folding out hands with decent equity share such as KQ is a big win.) i think checking all my over pairs, some 9x, AK AQ AJ etc is prob the best tho and mixing in some small bets with draws/ some 9x/air.
turn i think i should be checking with a high frequency here (possibly all range?) maybe jam club draws J10, 9x?
river is pretty interesting. felt like jamming can rep so many strong hands and so seldomly a bluff. i can have 9x, KQ AQ JQ, 88, AA KK QQ.
idk what u guys think?
https://www.boomplayer.com/23647223_89B00FF6DE
i hate progs. prob pre flop im making a big mistake but there was 2 blasters in the hand with decent bounties
https://www.boomplayer.com/23647137_00B57F024F
sometimes i just feel like running it
let me know what u guys think
hospital to visit specialist for my hand tomorrow then flight leaves early Wednesday morning. prob will update when i get to 'burta.
gl my sons
05-01-2017
, 01:59 PM
sometimes you just go for it loving the punts
loving the punts
05-01-2017
, 11:07 PM
@ LG ty
@egption ty for ur thoughts sir.
1: yeah probably makes sense to do a lot of checking on the flop i agree and it's prob better to put AJ into our x/c range cuz we're way ahead of his range + a lot of our strong hands will want to do this. betting flop i think makes us super bluff heavy if we're c betting AJ and i think we should be c betting hands with less sd value + a few value hands
3: me either not std at all. villain is super stubborn/aggro so i was just oi
@egption ty for ur thoughts sir.
1: yeah probably makes sense to do a lot of checking on the flop i agree and it's prob better to put AJ into our x/c range cuz we're way ahead of his range + a lot of our strong hands will want to do this. betting flop i think makes us super bluff heavy if we're c betting AJ and i think we should be c betting hands with less sd value + a few value hands
3: me either not std at all. villain is super stubborn/aggro so i was just oi
05-07-2017
, 08:45 AM
Looks like a pretty boss basement! Hope Alberta treats you with some run good and feel good, GL to you and your buddy for the first SCOOP sunday!
05-08-2017
, 12:31 AM
Greetings fellow travelers,
Gonna make my best attempt at coherently typing this out given the fact that I have a big brace on my hand and movement is drastically restricted. Things could get messy...
Progress Report:
Health:
Workouts Completed this week: (3/4)
Times leaving diet guidelines: 5
20 Minute Meditation Session: 0/7
Books Read: 1/1
Body Weight +/-: -11 lbs. (since beginning of year)
Wealth:
Training Videos Watched: 0/1
Hours in the lab: 2/2
Sessions played: 4/4
Hours put into researching new avenues of revenue generation: 0
Weekly Proft: +1871
Yearly Profit: +12217
Live Poker Profit This Year: +5918
Book Review: Way too busy this week to read. Probably won't read something til after SCOOP.
Story of Leaving Comfort Zone: Bought a gym membership for the time I'm in Alberta. Was tough to motivate myself for home workouts and wasn't getting results so had to shake it up a little bit. As I've said all year long my fitness goals will be achieved this year and I need to do what is necessary. I used to go to the gym all the time in high school etc and then the more I stopped going the more uncomfortable I got with going. It's amazing the stupid **** and stories we can tell ourselves to prevent ourselves from leaving the comfort zone. Even though my hand is mangled I'll do 5-6 mornings per week in the gym and just do whatever exercises possible + cardio. Feeling really good with this routine so far.
Hands:
https://www.boomplayer.com/23772257_659174D5CC
puke vs russian fish reg. was tough to assign him a bluff here and in hindsight i should be calling river i think even though it sucks. he probably checks such a small percent of value hands on flop.
https://www.boomplayer.com/23767091_1BB3BE0ECA
i guess worse hands value bet. doubt hes bluffing much tho.
https://www.boomplayer.com/23764455_315D5D531B
cape town
Random Rant of the Week:
This sparked some thinking in my head earlier this week when I watched a Ted Talk on the Death Penalty. The guy giving the talk was mentioning about "the problem needs to get bigger in order to become smaller."
Basically what he was saying is that without knowing an inmate on death row he could essentially write their biography with 80% accuracy. So many criminals are just people who have been misguided or misled somewhere along the path of life. I'm not arguing against capital punishment by the way. I just want to make my point that the system is flawed to set up certain individuals for a life of crime or misfortune.
This is from a book I read a few years ago called "Freakonomics" by Steven Levitt, excuse me if my memory is a little bit vague. The author talks about a study done in some big American city in some year. All projections and trends showed that murder or crime rates were supposed to increase in the next year (as they had been for several years.) To the shock of all the experts, the crime rates dropped drastically. How could this be? Actually, one of the leading theories was that an abortion law had been passed about 16 years earlier. Can you connect the dots? Essentially, mothers were given the option to abort their children. Possibly, many children who would have been forced into tough lives with struggling parents were simply not born. Maybe there's a correlation?
In my opinion, there will always be people with innate pathological issues who have a higher propensity to commit crimes. However, I also believe that so many crimes or issues with people arise from their upbringing and their ideologies. So much of this stuff begins with parenting and social programs for youth, and some positive social conditioning. The vicious circle has to be halted somewhere...will our generation be the ones to do it?
We can obviously link this pattern to several other issues with society. North America is probably the fattest a nation has ever been in all of human existence. Big corporations are pumping their food full of **** to make the highest margins at the expense of the people. Grade school kids have Coke machines outside their classrooms, and then they get diagnosed with ADD because they can't focus in class. They get addicted to the sugar rush and get led into a path of diabetes and several other sad disorders. The pharmaceutical companies don't mind though because they still make their nut. It honestly sickens me to see how broken and flawed the system is and how people are predisposed to failure. On the bright side, we can educate ourselves and others...
Sorry for getting all negative and what not I could rant about this kind of stuff all day and I truly think the solution exists in educating people. Instead of teaching useless bs that can be figured out with a quick google search if need be, we should be teaching valuable skills for life: relationship management, how to do taxes, healthy eating, healthy habits, how to be a good parent, the list goes on and on....fitness classes or healthy activity classes should be mandatory in school imo.
To end on a positive note: I'm having a great time out West and really enjoying this process. I realize I might sound like a mad man writing this stuff but meh idgaf really
Here's a good tune:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmELguBZrxw
Here's a good quote:
"You can take the man out of the bad neighbourhood, but you can't take the bad neighbourhood out of the man."
Thanks for reading. Hopefully by next update I'll have shipped a SCOOP.
Gonna make my best attempt at coherently typing this out given the fact that I have a big brace on my hand and movement is drastically restricted. Things could get messy...
Progress Report:
Health:
Workouts Completed this week: (3/4)
Times leaving diet guidelines: 5
20 Minute Meditation Session: 0/7
Books Read: 1/1
Body Weight +/-: -11 lbs. (since beginning of year)
Wealth:
Training Videos Watched: 0/1
Hours in the lab: 2/2
Sessions played: 4/4
Hours put into researching new avenues of revenue generation: 0
Weekly Proft: +1871
Yearly Profit: +12217
Live Poker Profit This Year: +5918
Book Review: Way too busy this week to read. Probably won't read something til after SCOOP.
Story of Leaving Comfort Zone: Bought a gym membership for the time I'm in Alberta. Was tough to motivate myself for home workouts and wasn't getting results so had to shake it up a little bit. As I've said all year long my fitness goals will be achieved this year and I need to do what is necessary. I used to go to the gym all the time in high school etc and then the more I stopped going the more uncomfortable I got with going. It's amazing the stupid **** and stories we can tell ourselves to prevent ourselves from leaving the comfort zone. Even though my hand is mangled I'll do 5-6 mornings per week in the gym and just do whatever exercises possible + cardio. Feeling really good with this routine so far.
Hands:
https://www.boomplayer.com/23772257_659174D5CC
puke vs russian fish reg. was tough to assign him a bluff here and in hindsight i should be calling river i think even though it sucks. he probably checks such a small percent of value hands on flop.
https://www.boomplayer.com/23767091_1BB3BE0ECA
i guess worse hands value bet. doubt hes bluffing much tho.
https://www.boomplayer.com/23764455_315D5D531B
cape town
Random Rant of the Week:
This sparked some thinking in my head earlier this week when I watched a Ted Talk on the Death Penalty. The guy giving the talk was mentioning about "the problem needs to get bigger in order to become smaller."
Basically what he was saying is that without knowing an inmate on death row he could essentially write their biography with 80% accuracy. So many criminals are just people who have been misguided or misled somewhere along the path of life. I'm not arguing against capital punishment by the way. I just want to make my point that the system is flawed to set up certain individuals for a life of crime or misfortune.
This is from a book I read a few years ago called "Freakonomics" by Steven Levitt, excuse me if my memory is a little bit vague. The author talks about a study done in some big American city in some year. All projections and trends showed that murder or crime rates were supposed to increase in the next year (as they had been for several years.) To the shock of all the experts, the crime rates dropped drastically. How could this be? Actually, one of the leading theories was that an abortion law had been passed about 16 years earlier. Can you connect the dots? Essentially, mothers were given the option to abort their children. Possibly, many children who would have been forced into tough lives with struggling parents were simply not born. Maybe there's a correlation?
In my opinion, there will always be people with innate pathological issues who have a higher propensity to commit crimes. However, I also believe that so many crimes or issues with people arise from their upbringing and their ideologies. So much of this stuff begins with parenting and social programs for youth, and some positive social conditioning. The vicious circle has to be halted somewhere...will our generation be the ones to do it?
We can obviously link this pattern to several other issues with society. North America is probably the fattest a nation has ever been in all of human existence. Big corporations are pumping their food full of **** to make the highest margins at the expense of the people. Grade school kids have Coke machines outside their classrooms, and then they get diagnosed with ADD because they can't focus in class. They get addicted to the sugar rush and get led into a path of diabetes and several other sad disorders. The pharmaceutical companies don't mind though because they still make their nut. It honestly sickens me to see how broken and flawed the system is and how people are predisposed to failure. On the bright side, we can educate ourselves and others...
Sorry for getting all negative and what not
I could rant about this kind of stuff all day and I truly think the solution exists in educating people. Instead of teaching useless bs that can be figured out with a quick google search if need be, we should be teaching valuable skills for life: relationship management, how to do taxes, healthy eating, healthy habits, how to be a good parent, the list goes on and on....fitness classes or healthy activity classes should be mandatory in school imo.To end on a positive note: I'm having a great time out West and really enjoying this process. I realize I might sound like a mad man writing this stuff but meh idgaf really
Here's a good tune:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmELguBZrxw
Here's a good quote:
"You can take the man out of the bad neighbourhood, but you can't take the bad neighbourhood out of the man."
Thanks for reading. Hopefully by next update I'll have shipped a SCOOP.
05-09-2017
, 06:31 AM
