This is my third shot at a poker journal on RIO, hence the post title. It's also the title of a jazz piece I like by Trio Toykeat.

I'll keep it short this time because, well, just because. I guess I just want to make every word count.

A few years ago when I was still in school, I challenged myself to move up to $5/10 and started a journal here. I got lazy and the journal got timid, but I eventually achieved that goal. And because I got lazy and burnt out, I don't really recall how long it took or how I got there, although it was neither simple nor easy.

But I don't really want to look back at it and pat myself on the back. I think I have done that enough already. Rather, I want to focus on the present and keep moving forward. After all, bygones are just bygones.

These days I am mostly playing $5/10 and $10/20 PLO. I think I have improved a lot and still am beating the game, but that doesn't really mean much. I know I need to keep working harder and harder everyday to stay afloat, and I also realise, many times a day, how terrible I am at understanding poker. I'm not trying to be overly humble at all -- John von Neumann once said he understands about 28% of modern mathematics, and I don't think I understand poker any better than he understood modern math.

But I still want to understand poker better, and I would not for my poker career give up on this goal.

Granted, I am a full time poker player and making a living off poker is important, but that's not enough. I chose poker for a reason -- I wanted to do something I really enjoy. If I merely wanted to make a decent, stable living, I could have taken a few different routes. But I chose poker over them, and I enjoy my improvement as much as the freedom it brings me. So, I should keep working on it day in and day out; otherwise I would be doing something totally meaningless to me. And I want to make every word count, so..

Well, here it goes again. I will update my progress and share some thoughts in this journal. I'm mostly doing this for myself, but I also want to interact with other poker players whose feedback is important and helpful to me. I probably won't post lots of poker strategy because I am studying poker pretty much everyday anyway and I don't feel the necessity to turn this journal into a study note. But occasionally I might post some hands and ramble a bit about them.

Since this is my journal and I can write whatever I want, I would like to thank four people in particular: Phil, Lance, Chae, and Sungil. These people have basically shaped me as a poker player and helped me greatly whenever I needed them, yet I haven't had the chance to thank them properly, nor to return the slightest bit of this favour. I hope one day I can do something in return, and that's a big extra motivation for me to keep working hard. Thanks so much, guys.

There are more people to whom I am indebted, but I'll reserve this for later when I am much closer to who I want to be. Of course, this is yet another motivation for me to keep working hard :)

So, without further ado, I'll throw the third ball and get started.

Thanks for reading, and good luck to you all.

Feb 19th 2017
midori