Yoyoyo,

Just got back from a little road trip to Montreal. Got to spend some time with some friends from University there and also played some pokerz (WPT Main). I guess I'll start with that/a few hands from it:

First, I forgot how draining a live poker session can be. I have played a decent amount of live poker but not many zombie sessions. In deep structured main events etc that take multiple days to complete requires an absurd amount of focus and discipline. (Not to mention the various distractions and issues that don't arise when playing online). Tonnes of stuff that is so organic to the game such as: bet sizing, player reads, chip handling, table etiquette, keeping track of pot size are all stuff that we don't really have to focus on too much online. Player reads/chip handling/table etiquette are all basically irrelevant. Bet sizing and tracking pot sizes is obviously way easier online. I should say player reads are important online too, just different.

I'm never really sure whether I enjoy live poker or not. I guess the organic feeling of the game and playing face to face is somewhat intriguing. However, not sure if it's just me but casinos and poker rooms depress the **** out of me. I can hypothesize on why less recs are playing nowadays (besides their disposable income streams have been drained by sharks), but it just doesn't really seem all that appealing to be honest. There was very little talking on my tables or joking etc, (understandable in a larger tourney for some people). It must feel uncomfortable for an older person who wants to flick in a tourney and they sit down at the table with 8 25 year olds who all have hoodies and headphones in who stare them down in every pot, stone faced (whilst once in a while discussing about equities/ranges/frequencies etc)

Anyways rant over about that, here is a few hands of interest.

-UTG (who appears to be like a pre black friday USA converted live reg) jams ~20BB)
-UTG+ flat calls w/ 70bb stack pre flop (he seemed half solid)
-folds around to me in MP and I have AKo

I elected to fold here as I felt that UTG probably won't open jam anything I crush (I don't think he should open jam AQ or KQ, AQ is prob fine but KQ seems bad), and the caller must be super strong here given that he has the whole table to act after him. Decided he should never have AQ either, and will have a fair amount of traps. So I felt it might be best to just pass this and save the variance as it seems marginal at best.

To my suprise (and disgust) it turns out UTG guy jammed KQo and the other guy had AQo. Had I known either of those hands were in their range I would have happily jammed AKo, but yeah didn't seem great but result makes me puke.

Next hand: I open EP (had a slight loose image) with QQ from 70bb stack. Button (who is assumed usa live reg) 3 bets me, SB cold 4 bets. I think getting QQ in here is meh, maybe I should have. But vs EP open and BTN 3 bet I really cant see a guy cold 4 betting here with too many hands other than AA, KK, maybe AK (prob not with his sizing), or maybe JJ but i doubt it.

There was a really interesting hand that I'll make a replay of later.

But anyways, yeah I played pretty solid and very close to my A+ game and I'm happy with that. Good weekend overall.

One of my goals at the start of the year was to purchase myself a condo or house.

-Purchase myself a condo or house ( x )
I'm quite happy to finally have a place to call my own and I'm ready to do some serious work there! Just thinking of some ways in which I can possibly monetize the space (perhaps Airbnb if anyone has experience being a host on there I'd love to talk)

Anyways, I was gonna make a long post with some thoughts etc but too tired now and I'm gonna put in a big session tomorrow. GN homies.

"People spend their lives chasing money. Time is the most valuable currency."

I read the above quote on another players twitter account who was sitting beside me @ the recent live tourney (I usually google everyone on my table if their name is available to gather information.) I thought quite a lot about this quote throughout the day and the obvious truth behind it. Sometimes as poker players our only focus is to take as much as possible from the game as we can. At the end of the day poker is a game of trickery and deceit, moreover, our goal is to win as much of the pie as we can. We spend countless hours analyzing ranges/frequencies/GTO solutions/balance etc...with the end goal of winning as many $ as possible from our opponents. While this is somewhat of the beauty behind poker, it is also somewhat of the curse. In most cases, poker is a selfish game...a small portion of the players are winning (I've heard around 14% last year) and the house is also winning. That being said, the losers likely get some form of enjoyment out of playing the game and also enjoy having the chance to win money.

The point I am trying to get at is that we chase wealth constantly and that is our primary focus. When the constant focus is winning money, I think we tend to neglect some of the important things in life: being a good person, contributing to society, our health, and our precious time on this planet. We sometimes even envy others by "how good they run" and feel owed by poker about "how bad we run". Have we ever considered that we run incredibly good in the fact that: we have loved ones, we live in countries where we have a voice, we play a game for a living, or our health? This is all stuff that we take for granted every day (at least I do).

One of my best friends passed away when I was 18. This was one of the most difficult times in my life and I would honestly give up any amount of money that I've earned in poker to have them back. When it comes down to it, money doesn't really mean ****.

So I've been doing some thinking about how I can contribute to society a little bit and how I can give back. I remember when the friend I talked about above was sent by a charity to Australia for a once in a lifetime trip. They had the time of their life. I'm pondering doing some type of charity fundraiser in the new year or something (not sure what exactly.) I've thought about raising up some money to send a disadvantaged kid on an amazing trip with his/her family, or maybe just donating some money to a great cause. I'd love to hear any suggestions or thoughts on this!

Anyways, I didn't mean to make this post all gloomy and pessimistic about poker. I'm thankful for poker for soooo many different reasons. It's just easy in this busy online community to forget about the bigger picture sometimes, that is all!

Thank you for taking time out of your day to read.

Mike

PS: Shoutout to the reg (if he reads this ever) who told me on the tables that poker is just a game. I was a little bit sour in the chat (half jokingly) to some other reg who made an awful play against me (at least imo). He got me thinking and inspired me to write this post.

For a laugh here is the hand haha:

https://www.boomplayer.com/21514107_587889BDEF

My flat with A9o here is super meh, but it was his 2nd or 3rd time in not many hands 3 betting me so I was oi. +I think he has to play his hand somewhat face up on a lot of boards at this stack depth OOP. When he checks the flop I'm really not giving him too much credit for almost any value holdings (maybe I'm wrong), but I assume all over pairs will almost always be betting flop. I am really checking behind a tonne on the flop. Felt I need to protect my 9 here and he would be stubborn to give up. So yeah, just snapped off on the flop given the above logic. Perhaps I'm wrong here but who gaf haha

yes

sub

gl

Moving into my new place this weekend. Tomorrow will be my last session probably for at least a week while I get settled in there. Instead of waiting for 2017 to arrive I'm going to take full advantage of my new place and optimize my circumstances immediately. I will of course set some more refined goals eventually but this is the general direction of where I want to be heading:

Through some of my thinking and reading throughout the year I have asked myself: what makes me successful (from my view point)? What makes me happy?



Aside from everything else...I want to live a successful life and be happy doing so. There are several different aspects of this but from my reading and thinking I've agreed that a great life stems from 3-4 different main pillars:

Health: Having a healthy mind and body is the core foundation of living a great life. How we view ourselves and how others view us is primarily based on our own mental and physical health. How we feel about ourselves greatly influences how we perceive the world, how others perceive us, and the perspectives that we have on life. Moreover, by having a healthy body and mind we will have a general healthy perspective. Naturally, other humans will sense how we feel/think and will relate with us based upon this. Something called "the law of state transfer" means that others will feel how we feel. For example if you go into a situation with a negative attitude other people can feel this and they resonate with that negative attitude (or any other emotion). So my theory: keeping the body healthy keeps the mind healthy and vice versa. This is completely f*****g GTO (obviously, but still probably way more GTO than most people even realize.)

I didn't even mention the fact that having a healthy body makes us better in almost all avenues of life. For example: thinking capability and capacity, stamina, appearance, sleep, etc etc (we all know this obviously but still...it's so obvious yet so often overlooked).

Wealth: People often say "money doesn't buy happiness". In my opinion they are neither wrong nor right. It is so clear that money does not buy happiness (just look at how many people are miserable that are rich af)...but try to be piss broke and be happy...it's difficult. Having financial freedom allows us to allot time to important things in life and takes away a major stress factor that many people deal with. Personally, if I have x amount of $ expenses in a month, I need to match x$ and then have a reserve fund. This allows room for error and a safety net. I remember back in my early days of poker I was pretty broke going through uni and would just sacrifice all aspects of my life so that I could grind to make rent. Sure, I made rent...but neglected everything else. The bottom line going forward is: manage my revenue streams (hopefully multiple) and expenses so that I can pay for the life that I want to live. I want the freedom and choice that money can essentially buy. Does that sound too materialistic?

Relationships: The importance of this (imo) is sooo underestimated. The saying "it's not what you know, it's who you know" comes to mind. Do you know anyone that is so good at leveraging their networking and communication abilities that they come across several amazing opportunities just because of who they know? I can think of several examples of this just in poker alone.

Anyways, business relationships are only a side focus, although important. I really want to focus on treating the people close to me extremely well. That being said, when people aren't treating me the way I deserve...I want to get better at eliminating them from my life. I really want to work on disassociating myself with toxic people that will kick me or drag me down with them. A primary focus going forward is to get my dating game on point as well. I had a gf for the majority of the last few years and was kind of taken off the market. Need to get myself back up to par and become the best man possible.


That's my thoughts and views on "The Pillars of the Great Life". I am sure as I continue to work on this my view points will shift and perhaps I'll find other stuff that is more important to me. As for right now: almost any activity that isn't contributing to these pillars is a waste of time and dragging me down imo.

I'll eventually release a plan with specific goals and challenges to strengthen these pillars. (For example for health: workout 5x/week or something/get mentors etc.) As for right now I'm happy to have gained a better perspective on my life's purpose.


Poker: Played a session Sunday for the first time in a while. Got ~36th in the SW and ~36th in the Sunday 33r and FT bubbled 11r. Played relatively well and felt a high level of focus. Did have a few spots that I think are worth a bit of questioning:

https://www.boomplayer.com/21572118_AE8C22A7F4
^Was on FT bubble of the 11r. UTG guy is pretty aggro brazillian that I assumed will be applying a lot of pressure given ICM. I think pre flop folding is likely too nitty and exploitable (given the above logic and his stats)...I've been trying to tighten up in the BB but this has to be a call imo. I guess on the flop x/jam is a reasonable play as it protects our hand, but also tough to get called by worse. On this particular flop texture I think calling is ok because there are several turn cards in which the villain must slow down. (We can showdown our hand quite often which is maybe less variance, this also gives room for a bluff catch which could be more +EV as well.) However, I'll likely be check/jamming several draws here which might make K8 a good candidate to do this with...One thing that is somewhat alarming here is that the general population seems to be playing these textures a lot more cautiously from UTG vs BB because the BB has been played way better than in the past in general. People are more range aware and realize they have a big range advantage in the BB on this flop. For that reason I think he is slightly weighted towards only betting over pairs and draws here (I don't have great equity vs that range). I was in quite a difficult spot on the turn and really could have went either way here. It's a very weird spot because he shouldn't be betting with this sizing that much. I deduced further that his range is overpairs+draws+910+full houses...maybe I should just nit fold this and not tell anyone...what do you guys think?

https://www.boomplayer.com/21571285_0639EB522A
difficult hand here. is it well played/should i be folding pre?


Anyways thanks for reading. I appreciate the support y'all!

"Even though you may want to move forward in your life, you may have one foot on the brakes. In order to be free, we must learn how to let go. Release the hurt, release the fear. Refuse to entertain your old pain. The energy that it takes to hang onto the past is holding you back from a new life.What is it you would let go of today?"

-Mary Manin Morrissey

If you have any more thoughts on this let me know I'd like to do something like this and would be interested in jumping board with you or copying your idea and doing it myself. Great thread I've read the whole thing. Thx for reply re bvb we also

Thanks, I appreciate that. I am busy moving into my new place the next week or two. When I get settled in there I am going to start formatting some specific goals for 2017. One of those will be giving back to the community or society in some format. I've thought a lot about this and will also be involving some IRL friends too. I think it would be a very rewarding to send a disadvantaged kid/person on an amazing vacation. (I'd likely do this by running some charity events or maybe selling packages with markup going to charity/donating some of my own $).. To me this is a cool option because it creates an experience that I could directly see my funding $ creating.

I've actually got some PMs giving suggestions as well which I really appreciate. One was about sending toys to kids in a childrens hospital (that was organized on 2p2), and has now developed into straight up donating to a childrens hospital. I'm thinking that could be a cool idea which could definitely be done very easily without a lot of orchestration.

Anyways, I'm going to think on this a lot before the new year and will come out with an answer in my 2017 PGC thread (or continuum of this one).

I'd love to hear your thoughts and suggestions.

"The one thing that can be learned from a lion is that whatever a man intends doing should be done by him with a whole-hearted and strenuous effort." -Chenakya

"Men who have lived significant lives are men who never waited: not for money, security, ease, or women. Feel what you want to give most as your gift, to your woman, and to the world, and do what you can to give it today. Every moment waited is a moment wasted, and each wasted moment degrades your clarity of purpose." -David Deida (From the book: "The Way of the Superior Man".

Supsupsup!

Just spent the last few days moving into my new place and getting everything set up. (Still have a tonne of stuff to do though.) It's looking pretty sweet! I'll post up a few pictures of my setup etc when everything is in place.

Anyways, I felt like I would open up this post with those two quotes. The first quote I wanted something to do with a lion. The lion is "The King of Beasts". The lion is a creature that loves the hunt and loves the process of the hunt more than he loves the prize. (Perhaps untrue, but I like the way Eric Thomas describes it.) The lion symbolizes: bravery, courage, and strength. I'm kind of viewing my new place as a lion's den. This is where I go to recharge my batteries and perfect my craft and will hopefully one day become a beast, just like a lion. I want to love the process more than I love the prize.

The second quote is taken from the book "The Way of the Superior Man." I really enjoyed this book, although corny at times, sheds light on what it takes to crush it in life and live a life of meaning (as a man/masculine energy). One of the main points I took away from the book is that masculine energy (being a superior man) is defined by knowing what is at the deepest importance/purpose for the man, and being able to hold true to that purpose and stay disciplined to achieve that purpose. This purpose can be different for all men. I really feel like through the last few years and some of the very tough times (and amazing times) I have developed a far better understanding of my deepest importance(s). For now, my deepest importance is health, wealth, love and relationships, as I stated in one of the above posts. Anything that is not contributing to these pillars is weakening the grasp of my deepest importance. For example, if I don't stay disciplined with my diet I'll be ruining my grasp of health. (Which actually in turn affects all other pillars if you think about it.) So yeah, no sense waiting!

I'm planning to grind 5 days per week (Fridays and Wednesdays off, some Mondays) until about December 23rd. Workouts will be every day (except for Sunday), and only 1 cheat meal allowed per week. This is the regiment that I followed in my bootcamp during the summer and I had some amazing results, hopefully can repeat that. Will post in here if I f**k up anything so that I can hold some accountability.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASIT7U463Q0&t=219s
^I've probably posted that video before but I love it. Everybody wanna be a beast until it's time to do what beasts do! A real man in the dark when nobody watchin' he puttin' in work!

LET'S FINISH THIS YEAR STRONG!!!

glgl my homeys.

Mike

"The game of basketball has been everything to me. My place of refuge, place I've always gone where I needed comfort and peace. It's been the site of intense pain and the most intense feelings of joy and satisfaction. It's a relationship that has evolved over time, given me the greatest respect and love for the game." -Michael Jordan

When I read this quote earlier this week it reminded me of a few things.

1) When I was a kid and going through tough times I would always go play hockey and that would tune out all of the noises and difficulties of the outside world. It was so easy to forget about everything else. Needless to say, I got really f***ing good at hockey. There was a few reasons why I didn't continue playing to a higher level etc but I won't get into that now.

2) When I went to University I really found it difficult being several hours away from home/friends etc...poker became my new hockey or basketball...my place of peace and refuge. I guess in some way this was a blessing and a curse, I got relatively good at the game and made a lot of money that could finance my travels/education/living. When I really consider it I've put a SICK amount of time into this game. That's one thing that really makes it tough to let go and give up...although I can say I've achieved almost everything that I could have ever dreamed of from poker now (almost). This game has been such an emotional roller coaster. I'm curious how successful I would be in another field if I put all the time and effort that I have into poker into that field...

3) About 1.5 years ago I had an appointment with a life coach or therapist. (Just to discuss my options and to get some advice). Of course when you go in there and tell them you are a professional poker player they will immediately divert you to gamblers' anonymous etc. I told her to look beyond the whole addiction thing and just ignore it. An interesting point that she said was "do you ever think poker is an escape mechanism for you? Something that helps you block out some of the difficulties and importances in life? Something that gives you a sense of accomplishment and pride? This sort of makes sense. Maybe the game is more deep rooted in me than I thought, but I needed money, I needed to grind...but is grinding just escaping the real grind?

Anyways, back to the topic of achieving my dreams in poker. I remember the first time I got 4th in the Big 11 for ~3.8k (before it was a bowl comp), I was ecstatic. Really, I didn't think I would ever amount to some high stakes end boss/baller type guy. Just having enough money to get from point A to point B was enough for me. So yeah, as far as tournaments and money go I exceeded my wildest expectations. As far as lifestyle goes, I have let them down. So I'm going to say it now: my dream in poker is not money, it's a lifestyle. The beginning of this lifestyle starts with having my body in peak condition. 100% the biggest concern and goal to close out 2016 and bring in 2017. (Will talk more about goal specifics and lifestyle specifics in 2017 thread opener).

I need to man up and grind...not talking poker grind (for once). Quite often it's the right thing that's the hardest to do. I can envision this dream lifestyle now and I have no excuses not to go and get it, just going to take some discipline shifting and focus.

Anyways yada yada, I won the bounty builder 162 the other night for about ~10k or something, after factoring in bounties. Only played 1 or 2 sessions this week. The first one was really good where I shipped. My Sunday session today was very mediocre, made some critical mistakes and didn't have my highest focus. Luckily cashed a tonne of stuff and didn't lose too much Here's a few hands:

https://www.boomplayer.com/21752080_A6A1043116
This hand was by far my biggest disaster of the day. First of all, I think 3 betting these types of hands from the BB is fine once in a while vs loose openers is good. Helps balance frequencies and also helps with having good board coverage for our range/ won't be dominated by any of the villains cards. For example K9 will be crushed by tonnes of combos in an EP opening range, whereas 53s usually will have 2 live cards. Not to mention we rep a super nut range. Moreover, we can't only 3 bet AA KK QQ and AK from the BB, we need to have some bluffs and these types of hands are the best to do it with OOP imo. That being said, the villain was not loose and he was actually on the tight side, hence why this probably sucks even more. I guess on the flop I can size a little bit smaller. (Not sure if this is an obligatory c bet, but I can see folding out a lot of hands with a turn jam, or hands that have equity against us on the flop.) So on the turn I'm basically repping a range of exactly AA AK and perhaps KK. I felt like generally with AA and AK I will want to be jamming here. The problem is the J is a terrible turn card connecting with KJ J9s Q10s etc. I don't think his call is great, maybe vs me its fine..but vs the stanard MTT player you will just get shown the big ole' D here so often.

https://www.boomplayer.com/21750583_C1193EDCC0
I really like the way I played this hand. Check calling flop is probably the standard but betting is prob ok too. Villain is a gold star brazillian btw. Most of his Kx and nut combos here will be jamming pre imo, so I can probably discount most Kx from his range. Flop he should jam all flush draws. So on the turn I don't expect him to bet 5x often, maybe 10x, but he shouldnt call that on flop. It's just one of these spots where a weaker player isnt value betting wide enough here or containing enough value combos in his range, that this was actually a pretty easy call (I think?)

https://www.boomplayer.com/21749983_B362ED6DE6
villain is good reg (graftekkel)..my peel pre is prob v loose vs a good reg but yolo, I think calling flop is mandatory especially vs his sizing. The turn gets interesting. Looking at the board texture I can have heaps of bluff combos here (flush draws/straight draws). I'm not certain I would actually be taking this line with those hands, but I think I should, especially if playing Qx like this. Imo this sizing on the turn puts his range in a very difficult spot, if he folds Kx AA, draws, etc he will be over folding for sure. whereas, if i check turn here its much easier for him as he can just get one more street of value with all his value hands and realize equity with draws+can pot control quite easily. so yeah, I really liked this hand.

https://www.boomplayer.com/21713862_7B07C16DD7
I liked this hand as well. Never sure whether to defend this weak pre flop, but vs mediocre or weaker players I think its fine. Decent spot for a merge on the river as tonnes of draws miss and my perceived value range is very narrow. (He probably assumes I only bet this sizing with Qx). Vs. this sizing I think its so tough for him to jam as a bluff, and he also has to call a lot if he perceives my range to be very weighted towards bluffs. He ended up calling with K9 lol.


Anyways, that felt good to get some of my thoughts written down. Time to CRUSH it this week and work towards the good life. Thanks for reading and GL!


"The good life is a process, not a state of being. It is a direction, not a destination." -Carl Rogers

"Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work." -Stephen King

Greetings,

It's been a little while since my last update, and I really do not have anything worth writing home about. Since moving to my new home things have been relatively uneventful. Really have played only about 2-3 sessions max. per week. Diet has been fairly on point, about 80% of where I need it to be heading into the new year on a consistent basis. Workouts have been lacking, and are maybe 25% of where they need to be at heading into the new year. So I did some calculations and about 90% of my problems at the current moment in life trace back to my lack of diet and nutrition in recent years. Luckily, all of that is fixable. I'm thankful to not have any major problems that don't have a solution in life. Really thankful to be honest. Trying to believe that nothing is a problem in life unless it can't be fixed. Probably a good optimistic attitude to have. Also, I'm thankful to have stumbled into some of these dilemmas in my life because I know the highs will be so much better when I know that I came from the lowest points, and I'll become a much better person along the way. I really think so many lessons in life can be learned at our toughest points, and we develop a larger understanding/grasp of ourselves.

On a side note a cool book I've been reading called "Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell has really caught my attention. So far in the book the author talks about how over thousands of years humans have developed a primal instinct to judge situations/people/etc based on quick glances and first perceptions. You know how we're always taught in life "don't judge a book by it's cover"? Or: "take a long time to make thorough decisions." Well actually this book talks about the opposite. Often our subconscious is sickly accurate at observing things...it's just tough to bring it to mind.

A quick example of this was a study done involving 4 decks of cards (2 red and 2 blue). Each card had a value (negative $ or positive $), the cards in the red deck were much more volatile values, and mostly more - than +. However, the blue decks were less volatile and generally more safe...basically a small steady win rate. Participants were asked to draw a card one at a time and tally their score. I believe the average person took about 30-40 cards until they were able to determine the pattern. HOWEVER, sensors that tracked heart rate, palm sweat etc... were able to determine that subconsciously the participants actually knew that there was some type of pattern. When hovering over the red decks their heart rates would increase or w/e...after only 10 cards! They would also select the blue deck more often and they could not determine why. So, I felt like that was a cool thing to apply to poker (maybe irrelevant), but so many times we are faced with decisions where we likely intuitively know the correct decision...but we deviate from that for external reasons. Honestly, sometimes it's better to roll with your gut feeling. Read that book by the way it's very interesting!

Anyways, back to the quote at the start of this post. I sometimes regret not working as hard as I could have in poker. When I reflect on 2012 when I was 20 y/o and didn't have much school to tend to and the games were soft as butter (didn't realize it at the time), I left so much EV on the table. Yeah, I've achieved everything in poker I could have ever dreamed of, but still...using this learning lesson for the rest of my life. I never want to feel like I've not put my full effort into something I'm passionate about again. There is probably tonnes of guys in poker who are less intelligent than me, but crush my results...there is probably also tonnes of guys in poker who are far more intelligent than me, but can't beat the game. Hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard.

Felt good to get some rambling done (if you stayed awake for the post, thanks if you did.)

Looking forward to closing out the last 2 weeks of this year as strong as I came in. Looking forward to organizing some new goals for 2017. Thank you my brothers.

Hey bud,

Love the thread and your insight. It's always refreshing to see a crusher expand themselves. Keep it up!

yes

thank you man i appreciate the kind words

"Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything." -George Bernard Shaw

Coping vs. Thriving:

There is two kinds of people in the world: those who cope, and those thrive. I guess this statement isn't entirely true or proven or anything, but I heard it in a video and it seems relatively accurate. There are so many people in the world just going through the motions in their daily lives day to day. One thing that is proven though: people are more likely to avoid pain than to strive for pleasure. I would consider this a coping mindset...and so often the pain that we are trying to avoid is only in our heads, and not having that pleasure is what's stopping us from being happy and living a fulfilled life. Personally, in the past I've noticed that at times I get into certain thought processes, and those processes manifest themselves into my actions, moreover into who I am/have became. I guess it's easy to tell yourself a certain story that can rationalize why you won't take action on something. Here's a quick story: During Uni I had extreme attention deficit problems and certain classes I would lose pace within 10 minutes of the lecture, I would then be an extreme procrastinator and never get caught up on the lesson until the night before the exam. I found this was especially in classes that involved math or a higher level of focus and concentration. So I sort of just told myself this story that I had attention problems and that was why I struggled in certain classes and it wasn't my fault...so next, my University had a rule that if you failed a class twice you would be kicked out of the school. So there was this class in Finance...the first time around I sort of gave up and didn't even attend the final exam because it was too difficult to learn last minute. My back was now against the wall and I had no other choice than to pass it the second time around...getting kicked out of Uni in 4th year and wasting all that time, effort, energy, and money...my life would be a wreck. Remember how I talked about avoiding pain? Well, this is what I think happened: the pain of getting kicked out of school and feeling like a failure was far worse than putting in some extra work to pass a course. During the semester I literally did not let myself give any excuses for not doing what was required. I attended every class, asked questions, got a tutor, did all of the practise problems several times, and did extra readings. Not only did I pass the final exam for the course, I got 100% on it. Not only did I find a work ethic in myself that I never thought was possible (I just told myself I was lazy and couldn't focus), but I actually found that I really enjoyed the class when I really hated it the first time around.

I was listening to a talk from a very respectable guy in the men's self help industry and he was talking about where confidence stems from. When you ask most guys about what their insecurities are with women they will probably say something like: I'm not good looking enough, I'm out of shape, I'm not rich, I'm not interesting etc...all of this is just excuses. Guys will say oh yeah well when I get a 6 pack or when I'm in shape then I will be confident. Funny thing is, there are lots of guys who are in good shape who aren't confident. The thing which will actually foster confidence is taking action! If you put yourself through a little pain and you can see yourself improving you will gain extreme confidence and happiness through this...not superficial things. But anyways, my point here is that so often we have some big fear or obstacle in our way of crushing it. It's about pushing through that little bit of pain to reach our dreams, and that satisfaction of achievement will foster confidence/happiness/success. So...what are your dreams and visions? What is stopping you from getting there? Figure out a plan to break through that barrier and I promise you will not only reach your goal, but you will learn a lot about yourself and have a lot of fun along the way. (I need to do the same for 2017...well I already know what all my stopping points are but I will have all my goals/and plan of action outlined for my 2017 post).

On the poker front things were pretty withered this week. I actually got 12th in the 215 Battle Royale which was painful. I 1 tabled it for several hours and was playing some of my highest level poker. Final 18 I was running pretty sour and had some gross spots against fish who just kept getting there on me. I grinded a tonne this weekend and that was very withered. Haven't ran that bad on a Sunday in a long time...but I take pride in knowing that I battled through it and played a full focused session. I did make a few mistakes but overall I am very happy with my level of play today. Here's a few hands:

https://www.boomplayer.com/21958258_9C3FFF248B
This hand was really frustrating. (Especially because I turned the nuts and would have stacked them both). First of all, when the initial raiser checks here in a 3 way pot I sort of just assumed he would be giving up on the pot and would basically continue here a very slim % of the time...as well as the button will be stabbing a high % of air here. Seemed like a great spot to bluff raise with outs to the nuts...and I assumed they will never re raise over pairs on me here (as they cant really get called by worse too often, and will want to keep bluffs in)... my value range here would be something like: 33,55,35s, 85s, and maybe 88 (although not sure raising top set here is good when their ranges are weak ish and not much to protect against). I guess my bluff candidates would be something like 96s, and possibly A2 or A4 preferably with BDFDs. Overall, I still think my line is pretty good here despite the result. Generally most villains will just call my raise if they have over pairs or sets and i have outs to the nuts (but would prob give up on most turns that my hand doesnt improve)...also usually the pre flop aggressor will be c betting over pairs and the button will be stabbing very wide when checked to.

https://www.boomplayer.com/21902258_BFE37A65E9
This hand was near the FT of the Battle Royale and such a puke spot on the river really.
BTN is random russian reg/fish i didnt know much about him. Pre flop I think calling is best here. On the flop I think calling is only option. Turn is interesting but I still think I need to be calling Ax on the turn as there are so many draws, and villain should be double barreling quite a high frequency when he has range adv. on this board. Told myself I will just call down if the river bricks, and fold if stuff gets there. River is an interesting card as my thought process is that he wont double barrel Qx very much unless 2 pair or perhaps Qxhh (even that I think he checks sometiems). So by the river I was thinking his value range is super small (basically only full houses) and i dont give fish or weaker regs credit for value betting wide in these spots....so really it felt like he'll have heaps of bluff combos and then only a few full house combos...thoughts?

https://www.boomplayer.com/21901492_609DD5A0C7
This hand I decided to run a bit of an audible. Villain is brazillian fish. Not sure if my line is good or not here but I feel I have a massive range advantage and I will have a tonne of value bets here. Really felt I could make him fold a better hand such as 62 but apparently I was wrong and got owned. Should probably just show this down though and not try to bluff.

https://www.boomplayer.com/21901065_FB04F612C1
villain in the SB is a fish. Flop I think most fish just fire a c bet when they have a pair or draw. I guess taking a stab with this sizing the goal was to fold out some hands such as small pairs or Ax...when he calls flop to my 2/3 pot sizing i think bluffing with 67 here is pretty needless and probably burning money... this being said on the river when I make bottom pair, I just dont give fish credit for value betting a wide range here. (Usually they just want to showdown I find)...so my assumption is that the average fish is way overbluffing here so i called...possibly bad as i might not even beat some bluffs.

https://www.boomplayer.com/21900873_6A16846CF7
this hand was vs a very aggro reg, who I dont give credit for value betting very wide for 3 streets here. like a lot of his value hands will just want to pot control here+a few draws missed. in game I time bank called river but the more i think about it i should maybe be folding here and im not in love with my call as i probably dont even beat some bluffs.. it felt good at the time though haha


Anyways, I wanted to get a decent post in here. Might have one more post at the end of the year to summarize this PGC thread and get an intro going into a new one. Pretty busy week ahead, I meet with my mentor on Tuesday and need to read Warren Buffett's book before that #cram, will try to play 2-3 big sessions and then ease in Christmas holidays... will probably take the last week of the year to reflect and draw up some goals and challenges for 2017.

"You have to take advantage of the opportunity of a lifetime in the lifetime of the opportunity!" -Eric Thomas

Thanks for reading homeys, sleep beckons.

Also wanted to talk a bit more about win rate from the BB. I put a lot of work into this and I believe when I first started working on it was around -39/100. I just checked for last 200k hands and it now sits @ -29/100 so I'm quite happy with that.

To the contrary, my win rate from the BTN has actually decreased quite a bit, to around 38/100 whereas before it was around 45/100. I am pretty sure this is because I started peeling the BTN super wide... my call pre flop 2 bet is around 13% now lol which is absurdly high. I think my win rate is the best here when calling is around 9 or 10%.

Overall, I improved since last data base review by about 2bb/100 which I am very happy about. Of course I could just be running good over 200k sample or w/e but I'm happy to see improvement nonetheless.

WOW!

It's hard to believe that it's been a full year since I sat down and got this PGC thread rolling...

First of all, I wish I could say to you guys that I accomplished every single goal that I laid out for myself at the beginning of the year and I've absolutely been busting my balls to crush it...I'd be lying.

What I will say though: I've learned so much about myself, the world, and people this year. I've also learned a little bit about poker. Along the way, I was able to accomplish several of the goals that I set out for myself at the beginning of this thread and I'm very proud and optimistic of where I've ended up. I'll quickly give some of my highlights of 2016:

-Went to Cuba and Australia with friends for a combined ~6 weeks. This was a goal at the start of the year that I'm happy to have accomplished. I'm not really a frugal guy, but **** was Australia expensive. Probably everything on average was 2x the price as Canada (outside of all the flights etc.) However, I'm so happy to have went on this vacation as it opened my mind to a lot of new experiences and different types of people. It's quite surreal when you are in the middle of the outback with nothing but kangaroos and no civilization for hundreds of miles. For the first time in years I was alone with my thoughts and the stars. Ever think about how seldom we are alone with our thoughts? What do we do when we drive? Radio. What do we do when we go for runs? Music. What do we do when we take a ****? Facebook. This brings me to 2 major things that I've discovered this year:

1) Meditation is a major key and gives you a huge sense of stability and focus in every day life (and enhances your ability to live in the moment). I didn't do a whole lot of this in the year, as I'm just a rookie. Foreshadowing of a 2017 goal alert.

2) Yes, money is extremely important in life. No, it is not the be all and end all. So many people live their lives transfixed on money every day, but there is so much more to living a fulfilled life than money. In the 4 Hour Work Week (one of the best books I read this year) Tim Ferriss talks about "the fat guy with the red BMW": moreover, symbolizing someone who works their whole life to make money, but neglects their overall happiness, just so they can display wealth or possess materialistic things. Yes, I will say that wealth is one of the most important things to me in life. However, I want wealth so I can experience life to its fullest with a high degree of comfort. I never want to work a job that I hate just so I can show people I'm rich. Ironically, Steve Jobs said: "you never want to be the richest man in the graveyard." (Too bad he couldn't really control this/couldn't have been saved.) But he is so correct imo... anyways, shoutout to that Australia trip, I read the book on the flight there and I would never take back the experiences I had there for the $ they costed.

Another big accomplishment that I made this year was in poker. To be honest, at the start of the year I was around ~33k makeup. (at my worst part this year anyways). I also knew that I had 6 courses (a 120% course load in the hardest courses of Uni, when my normal course load was 75% in easier courses). Failing wasn't an option and neither was staying around for another year. So I sort of put poker on the side burner to an extent to finish my school. I then went to Australia for 5 weeks. When I returned home I knew I had to face a demon...deep down I felt like the game sort of passed me by and I wasn't good enough to compete in the games anymore. Deep down, I was worried that I would never clear makeup and would have to be strapped down in debt forever. Ended up doing a 3 month bootcamp with a good friend where we really motivated eachother to live GTO lives. During this time frame I lost a lot of weight, went in the lab several hours, grinded my ass off, and ate the diet of a true champion. Man, the results I had there and since then were incredible. I cleared my 33k MU within ~4 weeks of being there. Shipped the Hot 55 2 or 3 times, won the 109 Thrill, won the 22 6m prog turbo back to back, and also shipped several bowl comps during that bootcamp. Since then I've shipped the Hot 55 again, the BB 162, and WCOOP Event 1. All of my poker goals this year I definitely accomplished and I'm very happy with the success I had.

This brings me to another big life lesson I learned this year: if you train your brain to always think the grass is greener on the other side...when you get to the other side you will not really be happy. In other words, if you tell yourself: "when I have a 6 pack I will be good with women and have confidence" or "when I make 100k I will be happy and free" etc...Sadly, if you train yourself to think like that, you likely won't be happy when you achieve those things. What will make you happy though is taking action and building your confidence through small wins. For example, I'm way more proud and happy that I spent many sleepless nights in the lab this year and grinding to my full potential than I am of my WCOOP win (I really just luckboxed it anyways). I'm really working to train myself to be happy with my current situation and be optimistic/happy about the future. Yeah, maybe I'm not in the best shape of my life atm but I'm working every day to improve that, and I'm learning to appreciate myself for who I am. In return, I've really noticed others appreciate me and give me more respect for that as well. (It's tough to respect someone and follow them if they don't even respect themselves).

Perhaps my biggest accomplishment of the year is graduating my uni program. I think this is probably my proudest accomplishment of my life. Funny, the paper or the qualification itself doesn't really mean a whole lot to me. However, I'm so proud that I was able to overcome a lot of depression and tough times during that 5 years I was there. I never truly believed I had it in me to finish but I pushed through some walls and got it done! In hindsight, it likely would have been better to drop out first year (it was difficult though with external pressures). A lot of really good things happened to me when I was in Uni, and I'm growing much stronger of a person because of it, although still rebuilding lol.

In the city that I am from @ the University here 2 kids committed suicide this semester. Also another kid from our city committed suicide when he was away @ school recently. It's extremely sad to see that kids are going through tough times and they feel like there is no better option to end their pain. I feel a lot of this comes from external pressures to attend school and students are experiencing living on their own away from family and friends...basically being trapped in a place they feel the need to be in because society told them they had to be. The education system is one of the biggest scams in the world to some degree. Giving students unmarketable degrees where they are overwhelmed by student debt is larsony. I'm not saying going to school is bad or that I regret it, but the system is so archaic. A majority of the stuff they teach is irrelevant to most students irl, and it's taught in methods that will not reach all students. Why are we forcing kids to memorize cloud formulations/probability distributions/formulas etc...(especially when half of the stuff can just be google'd on the fly anyway.) What about the important things in life? Wouldn't you like it if school taught you: how to manage your money, how to manage relationships, how to manage your health or nutrition, or how to self educate? "Formal education will make you a living, self education will make you a fortune!" Anyways I have some goals for this stuff for the new year I'll put it in my 2017 post.

Another main stepping stone this year has been my condo that I purchased. No need to get too in depth but this was huge for me. Finally, I'm settled in a place that I like and have it furnished the way I like. 0 excuses in 2017! Might show a few pics of it eventually it's pretty pimpin' and I'm really proud of it.

The last accomplishment I want to talk about from 2016 would be that of my skills in relationships with other humans. I watched some amazing content and read some great books about this stuff this year. I guess so much of this stuff is just appreciating yourself and valuing yourself as a person. Moreover, people that weren't treating me right in the year I just worked to cut their influence out of my life. "Why care so much about people who do so little for you?" That being said, people who treat me right and have my best interests in mind I want to continue giving back to them even more so than I have this year.

We all have insecurities in life. Often those insecurities or perhaps a few bad experiences cause us to have difficulties in relationships. Insecurities are really only bad for us if we let them be bad. For example if a guy is short, there is nothing he can do to change that. If he owns that and just loves himself and accepts that is who he is, he will have way better success and happiness in life than a guy who is 6"2. It's important that if we have insecurities we do everything we can do to make them better (burning fat, getting a hair cut, dressing better etc) but we can't let them hinder our everyday life. Weirdly enough for me back in the day I would let my insecurities distract me from having a night out with friends or from being myself in public. This brings me to possibly the biggest paradigm shift that I had in 2016:

Weirdly enough, when I was in a very negative mindset through Uni (things really beat up on me) I generally felt like so many people were: selfish, mean, overly critical, etc... However, I'm really starting to accept people for who they are and realizing most humans deep down have good intentions, and if they give off bad behaviours it's maybe for reasons that I can't see at the surface.

For example ever get enraged when someone cuts you off when you are driving? (yeah, it's not safe obviously) but likely your thought are "what an ignorant prick" or "wow, what an idiot not paying attention". Ever stop to think maybe that person is having a really garbage day and they just got fired from their job? Or their kid is sick/they just didn't see you/etc etc... Or maybe if you are out at a club and some guy gives you a wayward comment? Maybe he got bullied as a kid and has some insecurities of his own and chirping you makes him feel better about himself. Maybe his dad beat him. Or ever see the trolls on 2p2 hiding behind their computer screens? I won't even begin to elaborate on that one haha.

The moral of the story: we are all just beings on this planet and many of us have had a tough ride, just trying to get by day to day. Most of us are loving creatures deep down. We need to respect ourselves and others around us. Generally, by doing this we will see amazing results.


Anyways guys, at the start of the year I told myself I want to love the process more than I love the prize. I've enjoyed every minute of learning and developing this year. Here is a piece I posted from a Kendrick song earlier in the year...

The caterpillar is a prisoner to the streets that conceived it
Its only job is to eat or consume everything around it, in order to protect itself from this mad city
While consuming its environment the caterpillar begins to notice ways to survive
One thing it noticed is how much the world shuns him, but praises the butterfly
The butterfly represents the talent, the thoughtfulness, and the beauty within the caterpillar
But having a harsh outlook on life the caterpillar sees the butterfly as weak
And figures out a way to pimp it to his own benefits
Already surrounded by this mad city
The caterpillar goes to work on the cocoon which institutionalizes him
He can no longer see past his own thoughts
He’s trapped
When trapped inside these walls certain ideas start to take roots
Such as going home, and bringing back new concepts to this mad city
The result?
Wings begin to emerge, breaking the cycle of feeling stagnant
Finally free, the butterfly sheds light on situations
That the caterpillar never considered, ending the eternal struggle
Although the butterfly and caterpillar are completely different
They are one and the same.

This is probably my favourite piece. You can interpret it how you want and I'm sure you can probably interpret why or what it means to me.

My best book recommendations from this year: The 4 Hour Work Week, The 4 Hour Chef (parts of it), The Way of the Superior Man, Blink by Malcolm Gladwell, and Pitch Anything.

My favourite hand from this year:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?6820149

This hand was on FT of the WCOOP 109 phase event. Villain had been shown to be very stubborn and a bit of a monkey. It felt so wrong but so right at the time. Flop I think calling is probably the only option here. Flop I think with 2 good overs/ K high/ Kc is probably a good float vs this guy. Also on these board textures that favour my range I believe it's good to float as it's easy to bluff guys with high c bet frequencies + improve hand and they likely barrel Q or K turns and rivers as bluffs a lot. Turn I felt is a perfect card to lead to fold out most of his A high hands and I have outs to a solid flush. River the objective is to be getting him to fold over pairs/ A high flush draw/ single pairs.. It's nice that I block a lot of his flush combos with Kc and I also have so many value combos where he shouldn't have many. Anyways this hand really got my heart racing on FT and it was super crucial to chopping the tourney. Villain folded JJ FWIW.

As I write some of my final words for 2016 here I'd like to say that I had a tonne of fun on this journey this year and I learned heaps! I'd also like to give a sincere thank you to any/all who followed this thread and gave your support etc. I really enjoyed getting my thoughts out and organizing them late at night when I couldn't sleep throughout this year. Perhaps I didn't write about the most interesting stuff too often or get too in depth with strategy, but I hope y'all could learn at least a small thing or two/enjoy reading

Going to put this year to bed with a couple solid nights of celebration, will likely post my 2017 stuff in a new thread (or maybe just continue this one) in the next few days. I'm so excited for 2017!

"A time comes when you need to stop waiting for the man you want to become and start being the man you want to be." --Bruce Springsteen

Thanks again everyone. I wish you a happy and healthy 2017!


-Mike (Walmart Connection)

Pretty goat wrap up! Thanks for sharing a lot of wisdom along the road. Have a good 2017 mate!

ive known mike for about 3 maybe 4 years now, we met when we were both staked by a well known backer in the 2+2 community, and can say that he has a head on him way above his current age, i wish i was like him when i was younger,

just wanted to add that mikes game has come on leaps and bounds since i first met him, he was mainly a 180 turbo guy but i knew that when he came into mtts he would begin to crush with his work ethic,

he worked his arse off alot and i am glad to have him we have had some good skype calls ect and just wanted to add that im pleased to have met such a trustworthy nice guy in the poker world, we aint all bad ya see

holla to bowltinnion

much love champ <3 win me some money today please

yes

thanks for the love guys I appreciate it.


@ jayme i would have won u some money on FT of BB 16.50 but...

https://www.boomplayer.com/22094686_7498EAC01A

guy just snap jams in AQ too vs my polarized BB 3 bet range, that actually contains close to 0 bluffs vs him but w/e


I want to give the quote of the year that I forgot to post last night:

"The inflated ego you get from winning can create mental turmoil when you're on a downswing. Try not to ride the highs and lows." -James Obst

nope, never experienced that

yeah exactly. i figured us tournament players are all very level headed individuals but i thought in case there are some non poker players reading i would post it!

aren't you the best?

I was just kidding bc I meant it as a joke bc I never win obv ^^

hahaha ah i misunderstood what you were saying. thought you were just leveling

"The new year stands before us like a chapter in a book, waiting to be written. We can help write that story by setting goals."
-Melody Beattie

I ****ing hate new years resolutions. Mainly because I think it is a weak excuse for people not to take immediate action during the other 364 days of the year. Something like 90% of new years resolutions fail. So basically, the plan to success is essentially: 1) figure out your dreams 2) make a plan 3) put the plan into action...the third part is the hardest.

Anyways, all that negativity out of the way for now. It's 1 a.m. and I'm still hungover and foggy minded from all of the extra curricular activities this weekend to celebrate new years. That brings me to my first resolution: No alcoholic beverages for the month of January. I'll do my best to put together a coherent post before bed, which was supposed to be done prior to January 1st, 2017. It is currently January 2nd, 2017. This brings me to my second new years resolution: stop procrastinating and take action.

I was going to make a new thread for this but I think I'll just post it in here as there as I would like to re-read this stuff one day and see how far I've come in the past few years.

About me: For those who don't know my name is Mike. I am about 24 and 3/4 (will be 25 in February.) I've been playing poker for ~10 years now, as a means to make a living ~5 years. I just graduated University in April 2016 from Bishop's University in Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada (Bachelor of Business). Recently I purchased a condo in Kitchener/Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. I call this "The Lion's Den". (Will elaborate on that later). Poker has been very good to me in the sense that I have made enough money to pay for my living, travels, education, degeneracy, and basically whatever else I have spent money on in the past 5 years, whilst having some saved up as well . Outside of monetary gains I've also won a lot of life experience: dealing with 6 figure transactions, meeting and doing business with the widest array of people ever, setting my own schedule, owing heaps of MU and clearing it, working for a boss, being my own boss, etc etc... I've learned several lessons from the game, some better than others. Some examples: people's intentions might be well, but circumstance might inhibit those intentions being fulfilled, in general, you get out of poker and life what you put into it. Almost every guy that I've been close with in poker has had at least 1 6 figure score and made consistent $. I've seen so many people succeed in poker and so many fail. There are often similar traits on each side (maybe I'll talk about my observances one day).Possibly one of the most obvious things I've learned is that my mental and physical health is not so forgiving, and the poker lifestyle does not always help that. I remember when I was younger I felt invincible, eating and doing whatever I wanted, and still remaining in great shape. Man, life was easy when I was 18 I'm happy that I hit rock bottom in my 20's because my problems are easier to fix now than later on in life imo. I've also learned some invaluable lessons that will/have already made me a stronger person. I HIGHLY recommend checking out this podcast/article. The author talks about the things he learned in his 20's. I've learned a few of these things myself but suck at articulating them.: http://www.knowledgeformen.com/the-1...nging-lessons/

As much as I love poker and have learned from the game, it is so comfortable for me, and I feel at times that I need to broaden my horizons and leave my comfort zone to improve as a person. I want to use this year to really start leaving my comfort zone and finding new streams of revenue, and possibly retiring from poker.

Here are my plans for 2016: I've come to believe that the 3 most important things to me in my life are:

Health: This is the pinnacle of living a great life. From my experience it is difficult to be happy if we are not well mentally and physically. The benefits of being in top physical/mental form are astronomical and stretch far beyond increasing your life span and appearance. Far, far, far beyond that.

What is my end vision: By the end of 2017 I want to have a lean/toned body type. Moreover, a low body fat % and reasonable muscle tone. By the end of the year I will have a completely changed mind set towards healthy living. I don't want it to be a choice or a chore, I want it to be a standard and my baseline. I want to be extremely confident with myself. (Although working to do that every day, but this will help imo).

Action Plan:
-Update this blog every Sunday night with results
-Complete P90x in the first 3 months of the year without skipping one day
-Keep my fridge and cupboards stalked with healthy foods. I really haven't struggled much with this in the past. I really struggle and make poor decisions when I am out of the house however.
-Drink a glass of lemon water every morning.
https://draxe.com/benefits-of-lemon-water/
^quick article on the benefits.
-Take a cold shower every morning to leave my comfort zone. (There is also a lot of health benefits of this as well).
-Meditate for a minimum of 20 minutes per day.
-Read 1 book per week. 52 books this year.
-Keep sleep schedule relatively consistent, and never sleep more than 8 hours and 30 minutes. (I've made my room completely blackout...check out the benefits of that if you get a chance.)
-One cheat meal within reason per week.
-Never drink calories outside of cheat meal.
-No processed foods
-Limit bread consumption to a maximum of 2 pieces per day and keep it healthy types of bread.
-Leave my comfort zone to an extent at least 1 time per day. Write about it at least once per week in here.
-Continually strive to be in a positive mindset and view circumstances through a positive light. Whatever happens to me this year I have responsibility for how I handle it.

Improving my health and wellness is 100% my biggest goal this year. During University I struggled a lot with my health and neglected it. It's time to get things back up to par and feed my life operating vehicle the top notch fuel that it needs and give it the engine maintenance that it needs.

Wealth: It's funny as this is often the main area of life people put the most emphasis and focus into. I won't lie...it's extremely important. However, don't put all of your eggs into one basket or one end of the scale, as it will overflow or tip. So many people are deluded by money that they forget other important things in life. That being said, money is extremely important. To live a great life requires a bit of financial freedom imo.

End Vision: Keep my net worth in the positive for 2017. Generate enough money to fund my life experiences whilst building some savings. Generate multiple streams of revenue (outside of poker and gambling), and figure out how to make money for the rest of my life.
Action Plan: Poker will be my primary wealth generation vehicle for at least the first few months of this year. Ideally, I would like to start working on some types of other income that have less variance and get me more out of my comfort zone. Here are a few possibilities that I've thought of:
-Stock market
-Real estate investment
-Social media marketing expert (and sell consulting)
-A normal job in my field
-A working holiday visa maybe in New Zealand or something.
-Any one else have any suggestions?

As for now here are my goals for 2017 in regards to wealth generation:
-Grind a minimum of 4 solid sessions per week. Likely take some Mondays off and all Fridays/some Saturdays.
-Keep table counts up even when session is winding down. For example load some turbos towards end of day instead of 1 tabling.
-Continue to build my coaching operating and coach a minimum of 4 hours per week.
-Develop webinars and power point presentations for coachings and provide great value coaching.
-Watch at least 1 training video per week.
-Spend at least 2 hours in the lab per week.
-Sell a reasonable % of every session with some markup to cut variance.
-Be great at game selection. $/game and the variance it takes to achieve that $/game is really all that matters at the end of the day. No point to measure my d everywhere.
-Become elite in MTTs

Relationships: This is obviously an extremely important aspect of life as we are social beings by nature. I think we all know that relationships and networking are vital in life, but even then, I think we still underestimate the importance.

End Vision: Have a few circles of friends and solidify my relationships with my best friends this year, and find out who my best friends are (I have certainty for a few already.) Be going on dates at least once per week and have my options with women expanded. I want to help my close family and friends out as much as possible and help them achieve success.

Plan of Action:
-Activate tinder and online dating profile apps.
-Attend the program Toast Masters
-Increase conversational skills and decrease anxiety with this (especially with random people)
-Cut people that are net negatives out of my life. Stop reaching out to people that are dragging me down and spend minimal time with them.
-Reach out to friends and family as much as possible and help them out.
-Continue building confidence and becoming a man of extreme value.
-Watch at least one video per week from RSD and read some books on relationships.

Anyways guys, doubt most of you are still with me here after I just babbled out about 30290483 goals. If you are thanks I appreciate it

2017 is my first year that I decide what I want to do for myself and I have my own place to do that. I don't feel trapped and pessimistic anymore. I feel free and optimistic to crush it this year! I look forward to updating this thread on Sunday nights and seeing how far I can take myself this year. Hopefully I can provide some interesting content for some of you guys and help out if at all possible!

The slate is clean and there is 0 excuse not to do this. The time has come. I don't want to leave anything on the table this year. Life beckons...

Will give my weekly update tracking template in post below.

Thank you my friends, 2017 is here let's get it!!!

Mike