Hey everyone!
I have played Poker on and off for the last few years, but never really climbed out of the micros. I played NL5z/NL10z a lot and kind of burnt myself out and got sick of poker. In general, I have always suffered when it comes to life balance. I tend to go 400% into something, burn out and get sick of it. It isn’t +EV overall.
This got really bad last summer. I broke up with my girlfriend, got really depressed and dove myself into a daily fantasy sports project, poker, and really isolated myself. I spent a whole summer alone in an apartment in Vancouver and put myself into a giant hole. When September came I tried to get back together with my girlfriend, and it didn’t work out. At that point I snapped. I hit rock bottom and realized I lost everything. Friends, healthy social life. It was really awful. I never experienced a break down before in my life and I couldn’t control the anxiety attacks. I just kind of had to ride it out and pull my life back together.
To be honest this was one of the best things that ever happened to me. I started going to the gym again, I made new friends, I started dating again, and I started eating better. The one thing I need to force myself to do is to be able to do something without trying to get obsessed with it. This is my goal.

The goal is to do 1% every day. This is enforcing consistency and will force me to go through the motions and not try and do everything at once. I don’t have dreams of being the next Phil Galfond, but I need to do this for myself.
I decided to try a whole new format and start from the ground up. I am going to play PLO, and I started studying and playing already last week. Right now while I play I am just one tabling PLO2z, but once I get more confident in my win rate I will most likely switch over to Run it Once. I really like their format, and anonymous tables.
My schedule is 1 hour a day every day. I will alternate between playing for an hour one day then reviewing the sessions / studying on the next day which could be reviewing videos and making notes, session review, and trying to evaluate hands on the PLO forums. I can focus on a one concept at a time and slowly improve. This still gives me 7 hours of poker a week. It’s manageable and it will force me to make efficient use of my time.

I watch a lot of Nick Howards free content and I really have to say he is a bit of an inspiration to me. He talks about hitting rock bottom, and how he made his own way thought poker, and really respect that. I really like his emphasis on process, and the way he talks about how he makes strategy is correct. He understands theory well enough that he knows when to deviate from equilibrium. Where I think a lot of people think equilibrium is the answer always, which is just not true. Hugging theory too tight is just as bad as thinking it’s useless. A lot of his youtube content will shape how I work, and build my game.
I also got some coaching to start with PLO, and I think it will pay for itself pretty fast. I think a student needs the right teacher and vice versa, and the emphasis on process is really helpful.
That is it for now. I am going to update this blog every Friday. Looking forward to playing and learning poker in a much more relaxed environment. Looking forward to learning some poker, studying to convert mistakes into win rate.