Pm'ed you UAC.

Also personally I had a few interviews in person November, but no job offer yet, I'll continue to work on a few side projects and apply for another 20~ jobs in early/nid January, and check out some networking events.

Poker wise has fallen a bit back to earth, on a 2 month even stretch, but hopefully it turns around soon.

Cool thread, considering similar moves as OP and others. Good insight.

Still no job yet here, I'm still being sorta picky as I don't want a job 1 hour away for meh job $ wise (expecting 70-80k here in Toronto, Canada). Getting reasonable call-back/in person response rate (15-20% callback, maybe 33% of those turn into in-person interview).

I'm definitely a better programmer then I am back in January 2018 when I left my old job. Spending alot of my time with javascript/node/angular/react/mongodb.
Doing ok in poker (more $ then my last job, and but not printing $ like early/mid 2018). Still spending 15-20 hours a week on personal projects, hacker rank quizzes (javascript) and various youtube/udemy tutorials.

I never really used any cover letters, but i'm sorta afraid now due to my 18~ month gap that some HR people will instantly toss my resume in the garbage due to the gap. Do you guys think I should add a CL now to explain the gap and what I've been up to?

For sure, I would have started doing that after one month. Also call the company before you apply. You can ask some questions about the position, perhaps explain your situation. The point is mostly to make your application stick out and to signal that you're a good communicator (whether true or not).

Spending more time on coding projects probably doesn't increase the chance of getting a job after 18 months. I would still do it, just to not get rusty and hopefully you also enjoy it. But perhaps it's time to consider some other strategies for getting a job?

Edit: I see now that you have 5 years of work experience already. The 1.5yr gap is probably the main reason at this point. Can you still use traveling to justify this?

Well I went on one trip a month in 2018 varying from a 3-10~ days, not as much in 2019 though since I've been more seriously trying to get a job. I don't regret leaving my old job, 2018 was awesome with all the trips I went on.

I've tweaked my resume every couple months, but yea I agree I'm in need of a slight change in my game plan (hence my thought of adding a CL which I'll start doing now and possibly going to more networking events).

I can fall back on poker (which maybe im guilty of maybe too mcuh?) until I get a decent job, so I'm not gonna take some meh job an hour away from where I live. Yea I don't wanna play poker forever and ideally ill get a respectable job sooner then later.

But as I'll stick to my gameplan over the last year~ which consists of a mix of poker/projects/hacker rank problems/interview prep/networking events and a respectable job should come soon enough right?

Had an interview at RBC Capital Markets in Toronto,Canada, got two interviews deep but screwed up one semi-basic javascript callback question, so that opportunity has probably passed by.

Gonna continue to work on hackerrank, leetcode problems and projects while playing even less poker, a decent job will come soon enough.