Demondoink
4194 points
Thought you played really well during this video!
Are you mostly playing live or you are grinding online? Cos based on your analysis it seems like you study online ranges/hands etc a lot, but I'd imagine this wouldn't be the best use of your study time if you are mostly grinding live poker.
April 15, 2024 | 5:31 p.m.
I think it can be easy to feel like your straights in this situation aren't getting in enough money by over betting- so then you go for the block bet/3bet all in line instead in the hopes that your opponent will perceive the sizing as weak and either expand their value raising range, or bluff raise more often.
However, I feel like for IP this isn't a particularly appealing board to bluff raise, given that OOP is very likely to miss the turn pot bets with hands like A8/A7/A6 etc that are now block betting for thin value otr.
So when you bluff raise then you are targeting these combos as pure folds (which imo most humans don't have), and the remainder of the range is now consisting of either two pairs or AK/AQ combos, both of which could easily click the call button if they perceive you to not slow play enough KQ combos and perhaps over bluff with the QJ/QT/Q9 etc region.
I've noticed in the meta recently that people love to do these block bets in to 3bet, so there's also a strong chance that Hero is following this meta for the reasons of both trying to get max value with the nuts, and also protecting his block betting range. Cos if a certain combo is effectively pure overbet otr, and someone block bets, then it's pretty unlikely they rolled a 5% river block and much more likely they either rolled a much higher frequency block bet, or decided to go for the sneaky line and pure bet the nuts for a small sizing. It seems like Patrick done the former though as he mentioned randomising.
Anyways great video and hopefully there is a part two!
April 12, 2024 | 2:24 p.m.
Minimum effective dose
Life-
In recent years I have quite liked the concept of minimum effective dose. It is defined as 'the smallest amount of an input required to achieve a desired outcome'.
There are several ways that I have (consciously) adopted this methodology, and perhaps others where I have (less consciously) adopted it.
For example, while listening to a podcast (I think it might have been Joe Rogan, but in all honesty I can't remember for sure) they were talking to a neurologist who specialised in treating military personnel who were suffering from PTSD etc. The neurologist was using mindfulness techniques to treat them, and she highlighted that 12 minutes per day was enough to help to rewire the brain and help them to overcome their PTSD.
So after hearing about this, I decided to increase my 10 minute daily meditations (that would sometimes be 5 minutes and sometimes 20 minutes) to 12 minutes, in the hope that I could rewire parts of my brain that did not necessarily serve me well.
Now I can't say I done a ton of follow up research on this, to see if 12 minutes was indeed the magical number, but for the sake of 2 minutes of my daily life, I am willing to take that risk! She seemed like a credible woman, so I will give her the benefit of the doubt haha.
A few years ago I also started doing cold showers too. I've seen some Youtubers doing a '30 day cold shower' challenge, but to me this is kinda dumb cos it's basically impossible to wash yourself while you are in the cold water cos you are just trying to survive. So what I do is to just have a normal shower, then at the end turn the water to cold and (usually) set my watch to 30 seconds.
However, I had literally no idea what time I should be doing, or whether this was long enough or not. I just done this amount of time because it was long enough to be challenging, but not long enough for me to dread it each day. In general I would feel some positive after effects, but I think this is always going to be the case with cold water exposure.
Then the other day I click on a random Wim Hof video, and he talks about how 2 minutes is the sweet spot in order to reap the rewards of cold exposure, and anything beyond that is simply a mental challenge and nothing else.
So with that in mind, I decided to extend my cold showers and do 2 minutes per day now. The one at my home is quite easy, as the water isn't that cold just now as it's a lot more mild water just now (so the pipes are a bit warmer). But the one at the gym must be specifically for cold water, so you literally get brain freeze if you keep your head under it for too long. Surviving in that for 2 minutes the other day was quite brutal, but afterwards I felt quite amazing and it seems like (despite the small sample size) it does have a very positive impact on your mood if you stay in for that long.
Even with my workout, I started to use a timer in between sets, and it's amazing how you can cut down a 1 hour workout to just 45 mins if you take shorter rest between sets. I feel like taking shorter rest periods is better too, so that you can push yourself more during your sets, instead of waiting 5 minutes between each set and either staring at your phone or (in my case) staring out the window haha. I just do an upper/lower body split each week, cos in the past I would go 5+ days per week, but then completely lose interest and not go for ages. This way it's easy to go and I know that even if I'm busy for most of the week, it's pretty easy to get in 2 workouts.
Plus the reward of sauna etc afterwards can give you added motivation to go.
It's the exact same with poker study. As I've said before, I tend to study for around 1 hour per day (though this year it's probably averaged a little over an hour). For me, this is the MED where I can learn a lot, but also avoid burnout and mental fatigue that will negatively impact my session later on in the day.
I wouldn't say I am a naturally productive person. You see former military guys like Jocko Willink waking up at 4am every day, and here's me lying in my bed watching Youtube for an hour and getting up at 2pm- though of course it makes no sense for me to wake up as early as I don't usually grind until around 8pm. However, this is a good approach for the more naturally 'lazy' people, who want to improve (both at poker and perhaps in other areas of our lives) but aren't willing to wake up at 4am, nor grind 12 hour work days.
Poker-
So far this year my results have been quite good, it's just frustrating cos I am running way below EV and can rarely seem to win an all in. The good thing is that if I catch a bit of heat then I should be back at $5k soon enough. I mean I probably could just play it now, but I decided to set myself somewhat of a bankroll challenge, where I just start off with the money in my poker accounts and try to run it back up to higher stakes- without depositing anything else or counting other money as my poker bankroll. So hopefully I start winning some all ins otherwise it could take a little longer to get back there!
This week my friend is coming over to visit for the weekend. I thought he was coming on Friday, which would mean taking Friday off (as well as the usual Monday/Saturday) but it turns out that he won't be coming up until Saturday- which means I can grind tomorrow night too! I've not ran great this week, but I've been pretty resilient in terms of getting off to terrible starts in the sessions, but keeping going and usually clawing a decent amount of the money back. I think that people who quit after they lose x amount of buy ins (or perhaps if they feel a little tilted) are missing out because imo it's important to develop mental strength and toughness by continuing to play even when you are running like shit. If you just insta quit any time you're down 5 buy ins, then how do you ever develop this mental toughness? What then happens if you're in a juicy live game with a whale open jamming any two cards, and you are down 5 buy ins? You quit the highest EV game of all time?
So I usually just set myself either a hand target (typically between 1-2k hands per session) or a time limit (usually 3-4 hours per session). That way, I won't quit until I have achieved at least one of these session targets, even if I'm running terrible and feeling a little tilted. Then, if the games are good and I feel like continuing to play, I will keep grinding. But tonight, for example, the games were kind of dead so I just stopped after a little over 3 hours (which was only 800 odd hands) but I hit the low end of my time target, so that was good enough for me. Then we go again tomorrow!
On Sunday I played a couple MTT's on the side of my cash grind. One was the Sunday Million anniversary, and the other a 109 Euro satellite to the Estrellas live poker event in Malaga (a 1k buy in). My friend mentioned at the start of the session about going there, so I thought I would see if I could get in on the cheap- and I did! It was a 1500 Euro package, and the field was so soft, mostly consisting of fish and weak regs. I guess most regs wouldn't even bother playing this sort of satellite. I ended the day in the Milly with 70bb, but the next day I could barely win a hand, so in the end I was just happy to min cash (and recoup most of my 2 buy ins back).
The only slight problem is that the series ends on the 16th of June, which is also the day that I am supposed to be flying out to Germany and heading to the Euros (from Scotland). So I'm not exactly sure what I will do there.
Either way, it's going to be a fun Summer!
In the meantime, though, I want to have a fun Spring! That will involve being consistent in my poker routine, studying, grinding, going to the gym, playing golf and having 2 minute long cold showers!
GG.
April 12, 2024 | 2:45 a.m.
andymckenzie Hey mate, thanks for your response!
If you have seriously ruled out living in a beautiful country like
Canada because of ‘wokeness’ then you have gone down a right-wing
rabbit hole that isn’t a balanced representation of reality and won’t
serve you on the path to happiness.
I think living and visiting in a country are two completely different things. Would I go back to Canada for a holiday? Of course I would! Like you said, the country is beautiful and the people are nice.
However, when selecting a country to live in, then (as much as is possible) my values and beliefs need to align with theirs.
For example, of my five points, literally number one was free speech. Essentially I have zero reason to move from Scotland other than the free speech laws- but for me they are a massive issue because without free speech then you don't have democracy. Scotland is widely considered to be the birthplace (at least in recent times) of free speech with the Scottish enlightenment. The UK has had a proud tradition of free speech for the past 300 years. So to me it's a massive issue when we see that eroded by some ideologically driven politicians.
As much as I like Canada, it would make no sense to move there now. Free speech laws aside, my money would go nowhere near as far there, I couldn't afford to buy a property, I am far away from friends/family. Essentially Canada is just a more expensive version of Scotland.
So in order for me to move there, then it would have to exceed Scotland in the five points that I made in my post. They both fail on point one, and pass on points 2-5.
Though unless I'm mistaken, you have to pax tax on poker winnings in Canada? You don't pay any taxes in the UK.
Also I am not right wing. I would consider myself as more of a Libertarian/centrist. I want the governments to just do their job and stop trying to control what their people can and cannot say, can and cannot do. Of course I realise that they need to create and enforce certain laws to maintain order, but imo for the past 5-10 years Western governments are trending towards authoritarianism instead of freedom. Freezing banks accounts, controlling speech, demanding vaccinations etc are not indicators of democracy.
Also just to be clear, I have lots of 'left wing' views too. I'm not sure how many right wing Vegans there are, but I can imagine it's not a lot lol. The reason that I went Vegan was because I watched a ton of slaughter house videos, of animals having their fur torn off them while they are still alive, of animals being dunked in boiling water while they are still alive or just the general ones where sheep/cows/pigs are shot in the head with a bolt gun or have their throats slit while they are still fully conscious.
So mostly the reasons that I went Vegan was for compassionate reasons cos if I were a pig/chicken/cow/sheep etc, I wouldn't want to be killed for the sake of a meal, but also because I was concerned about the environment. Which is why I try to walk a lot, not drive a ton, use public transport and when I do go abroad nowadays, go on longer holidays so I don't go on tons of flights per year. I also recycle almost everything and try to keep the heating on as little as possible.
I also think things such as socialised healthcare, schooling and universities are much better compared to systems in the US, for example, where you have to pay for health insurance or get in to huge debt in order to pay for your University tuition.
So the reason that I don't like this woke ideology isn't because I lack compassion or because I am 'far right' it's because I think it's a load of rubbish and lacks any logic.
When I was at high school we didn't have any of this, and there was no suicide (at least as far as I am aware at my high school) very little depression and the 'hate' that we received gave us thicker skin and made us stronger as a result. Compare that to nowadays where there is sky rocketing depression, suicide and mental health issues. Yet we seem to think that the antidote to this is to inoculate people and make laws to stop people saying bad things?
Both political sides have valid points. There is never going to be one side that has got everything figured out. Imo we should just use the best of both sides to come up with compromises for the betterment of society- something that Arnold sought to do when he was in office too, as he would bring in Democratic people in to his Republican team and would also form relationships with the 'other side'.
1- There are lots of advantages and disadvantages that we inherit from our parents and that we have no control over. Perhaps skin colour is one of them, but then so is height, good looks (or lack thereof), hair colour, eye colour, intelligence, temperament, health etc (for example if your mother is a drug addict then that will have a big impact on the baby in the womb).
Then you have to factor in which country you were born in, which century you were born in (cos life expectancy is much higher now than 500 years ago), do you have good or bad parents etc?
So where does race fall in to all of this? Is it more important than height or intelligence? Is it better to be a 5'1, white guy with a low IQ, or a 6'5 black guy with a high IQ?
Is either of them actually 'better' or we have just become so comfortable and bored in Western societies that we have to start feeling inner guilt/shame over genetic characteristics that we have literally zero control over?
I hope this answers your question, but I think its disingenuous to answer it directly because there are another 50+ genetic factors that may also be just as, if not more, important than race when it comes determining the quality of your life.
2- This is impossible to quantify. How am I supposed to measure if the 'legacy of slavery' is still impacting peoples lives today?
Maybe for some people it is and for some people it isn't. Maybe it doesn't impact anybody, or maybe it impacts everybody.
These kind of questions are so vague that you can never give a 'correct' answer- because there isn't one. Each person has different thoughts and feelings.
I don't really like the victim narrative in these questions either. They both imply that by being an ethnic minority, then you are automatically a victim in society and you will always struggle to realise your full potential simply because of the colour of your skin. If anything, THAT is exactly what I do not like about the 'woke' ideology. It's an ideology of victimhood and a lack of responsibility, where people prefer to point fingers and blame others, or blame history for all of their problems.
Do you think someone like Michael Jordan or Tiger Woods adopted such a weak, victim mentality to become the best in the world at their respective sports? Of course they didn't! I am sure they experienced plenty of racism along the way, but they were also extremely genetically gifted (not that that cancels it out, its simply an acknowledgement) and more importantly, hard working.
Now if they were born in todays society, perhaps they would have gone down the victimhood route- thinking that the 'legacy of slavery' will forever extinguish their hopes and dreams of becoming the best sportsmen in the world. Or maybe they wouldn't.
Ultimately, only we can control our destiny. Sure, there are genetic characteristics that will make success in many fields more difficult for us, but it's our job to figure out which field suits us best, and strive for mastery in that field! We can choose, on a daily basis, to take responsibility for our lives or to forever remain a victim. We can choose to be grateful or ungrateful. We can choose to thank our parents for our genetics or resent them.
The choice is our own, and our own only.
April 4, 2024 | 10:16 p.m.
FakeEmpire Thanks for your comment!
Curious what laws you think would affect you if you moved to Canada.
1- Vaccine requirements.
I am not quite sure what the current laws are around vaccination status, but unless I am mistaken, for certain jobs you need to be fully vaccinated? Perhaps I heard this incorrectly or perhaps the laws have changed since the pandemic era, but I had a friend (not involved in poker) who looked in to working there, and one of the conditions was that anyone who applies needed to be fully vaccinated with boosters etc.
As someone who decided not to get vaccinated (before I get called anti vax I've had all the childhood ones and would happily have ones for malaria etc if I were to travel to a country where it was common) then that would be a bit of a problem if I couldn't work- assuming that I decided to do something other than poker in the future.
2- Lack of free speech.
I'm not aware of the exact laws around free speech in Canada, I'm only aware of the C16 law. However, these are the kind of laws that I am trying to get away from- not move to a country that has just as many, if not more.
Personally I think it's ludicrous to get jailed or indeed receive a big fine for words that you have said. If you are threatening someone or inciting violence then of course, this is completely different. But to criminalize 'hate' (who on earth is morally superior enough to even define what is hate and what isn't?) is Orwellian imo.
Of course we should be respectful to one another, but this is basic human decency and doesn't need to be enshrined in law. Cos the issue is that you can easily get someone who takes advantage of this 'hate speech' and creates wrong think based on their own ideological perspective. Where as something like assault or murder is pretty objective and thus much easier to define and criminalize.
Those are two of the reasons off the top of my head. I've also heard that certain podcasts etc are getting banned in Canada, but I don't know if this is true or not. Then about the truckers having their bank accounts etc frozen during their protests, which is kind of insane.
Trudeau has become a weird talking point for right-wing US media
I don't watch US media and would consider myself to be more Libertarian/centrist than right wing. Disagreeing with a left leaning politician doesn't automatically make you right wing. Everyone should be open to criticism- especially in a democracy!
Imagine a poker player who never accepted criticism :)
April 4, 2024 | 8:54 p.m.
Where are the best places (outside of the UK) to live and why?
Hey guys. So this week (April 1st) the Scottish government brought in a new law on 'hate speech'. This wasn't put to a public vote, and instead was pushed through by politicians that are ideologically driven. Essentially this law is an anti democratic one, whereby offenders can face up to seven years in jail if they are convicted of a 'hate crime'.
Anyways, while I am still happy living in Inverness at the moment, I need to plan ahead and think about what I will do in the future. My new house was not only bought as a place to live in, but also as an investment. So it's not really a problem if I decide to move abroad and rent it out- as it should be pretty easy to rent out.
I am at the age where I am thinking about what to do next in my life. I watched Arnold Schwarzenneger's documentary and found it quite inspiring, but I also related to it in certain ways. During the first period of his life, he focused solely on body building and on becoming the best in the world at it. When he achieved this, and was clearly the best, he decided to move on to something completely different (acting) and become one of the best at this too. Then when he hit the pinnacle of that, and was raking in tens of millions per film, he decided to move in to politics.
He didn't milk bodybuilding for every penny, he sought a new challenge. He didn't milk acting for every penny, he sought a new challenge. He didn't seek to become the next US president after being the governor of California, he decided to move on and enjoy the twilight years of his life and help others at the same time. He didn't quit each career at the bottom, he quit at the top.
By no means am I saying I am one of the best poker players in the world, but I can also recognise that I have managed to get up to high stakes and, at the very least, become one of the better regulars that play cash on Stars on a regular basis. Last year I mentioned about how it could be my last year in poker, but ultimately I decided that it wasn't to be and I would do at least another year. I am fully committed to playing for the entirety of 2024, but after that, I am not so sure.
Perhaps I will play on a more part time basis next year. Perhaps I will go back to University and finally get a degree. Perhaps I will open up a food truck and make food. Perhaps I will travel around and simply enjoy living. Or perhaps I will decide to carry on for another year at poker.
But sooner or later, I will decide to move on from poker. Like Arnold, I have always seen my future as being away from my 'first love' of poker (or in his case body building), and that I wish to try out something else. I've never had any intentions of doing a Negreanu or an Ivey and playing the game for a living for 20-30+ years. It just seems pointless to do something for such a large portion of your life when we have one life. Surely the goal is to try different things and make sure that each 10 or so year cycle in our lives is different from the previous 10 year cycle.
I digress. I am going to take another day or two off poker (I've been back visiting my parents) and the plan is to do some research in to where would be a good place to live, should I decide to move out of Scotland in 2025. I would really appreciate other peoples perspectives and insights, so that I can narrow down my search.
At the moment, the two places that kind of stick out to me are Switzerland and Poland. Switzerland is probably one of, if not the most beautiful country that I have visited. The people are very nice and whenever I speak to girls from there they are always extremely intelligent and open. I like Poland too, and I think that, because they are more of a religious country, they still have a backbone that many of the European countries seem to have lost (UK included) in recent years. Obviously Poland is a lot cheaper though, so if I were to be playing poker, then my money would go a lot further over there!
I always liked the idea of moving to Canada, as I really like the people there and it's a really nice, scenic country too. But Trudeau is a nut job and their laws are even worse than ours- so unfortunately that is off the table. Austria was another option (another great country with a ton of mountains etc), but their laws during lockdowns were extremely draconian.
Perhaps this is just the way the world is going at the moment. We have went through 100 years or so of democracy and freedom, and now it is time for much of the world to slip back in to authoritarianism. Hopefully that's not the case, though, and this is merely a blip in history before we return to normality.
I will highlight a few things that I am looking for;
1. Free speech. Preferably the country isn't woke and isn't heading in this direction.
2. Very scenic. Mountains to go hiking and lakes to go swimming.
3. A good standard of living and low crime.
4. Nice people. Family values.
5. Able to play on Stars.com- preferably no tax. In case I decide to keep playing.
Anyways, I would appreciate anybody's help. Perhaps they have lived in Switzerland or Poland and can give me some information. Or maybe they have lived in another country that they think is a better option! Even feel free to share your experiences of living in a completely different country and the pro's/con's of living there! I'm all ears.
This is not something that I plan to do immediately. I will almost certainly remain in Scotland until the end of the year at least, but I thought now is as good of a time as any to start doing some research on where could be a good country/place to move to in the coming year(s).
Thanks in advance! And even if you don't agree with some of my conditions, please remember that they are just what suits me and it's totally cool if you have different preferences. We can still be friends though :)
April 3, 2024 | 8:56 p.m.
Thanks! I will read it tomorrow then :)
March 27, 2024 | 12:58 a.m.
I'd like to read your post but the lack of paragraphs makes it impossible to do so.
March 26, 2024 | 8:45 p.m.
Day 7- what next?
Life/phone challenge-
This week has been a good week. Of course there have been the odd times where I haven't felt in an amazing mood or whatever, but overall this is the direction and way that I want to live my life going forward.
In the end I spent an average of 57 minutes per day on my phone this week. This is obviously a little higher than I planned, but overall I am still very happy with how little I used my phone and of the overall improvement in the quality of my daily life as a result. I hadn't actually checked my daily/weekly phone use in a long time, but essentially for the previous two weeks, I had been using my phone for an average of five hours per day!
(These stats are just for screen time btw).
It's actually insane how much I was using my phone before. Yet I wholly believe that the average person actually uses it for a decent bit longer than this, or is at least connected to their phones for much of the day (perhaps listening to music etc as they commute, workout at the gym etc).
So it was like an 80%+ reduction in the use of my phone. What did I do with this new found time? Well, of course some of the Youtube use etc was simply outsourced to either my TV or my computer, but I also spent the time in a productive manner. I read around 280 pages this week, which is almost the length of an entire book. This was split between two books- one of which was a self help book and the other about geopolitics. So they offered a quite good variety. I would tend to read the self help book first thing in the morning, to get me in the correct mindset for the day to come, then read the geopolitics book later on in the day, often after I had been in the sauna and was just chilling on one of the benches.
Because I didn't take my phone in my room, then I would fall asleep much quicker at night, and then I would wake up earlier as a result. I took away any opportunity to do something like binge play chess for four hours upon waking up, and it meant that I was starting every day in a productive manner with a 12 minute meditation followed by some reading. I also spent more time alone simply with my thoughts. Sometimes mulling things over, other times just trying to remain more present and think less.
Today, for example, I set my alarm for 11am, and woke up then as a result. I done meditation/reading, then quickly ate my breakfast before driving around 30 minutes to the golf course. I was just going to play by myself (it's only my second round there so I don't really know anybody there yet) but the guy at reception said I could play with the guy in front of me if I wanted to. So I quickly caught up with him as he was teeing off, and we ended up playing 18 holes together.
He was probably in his early sixties. We got along pretty well and the round ended up lasting just under four hours, simply because we were stuck behind a fourball that simply refused to let us through. I don't think I checked my phone once throughout the round, and felt really present for the entire duration of it. It was almost like I was in the flow state. I noticed that as soon as I got back to the house and logged on to the computer in order to study, that I started thinking too much again and lots of random, somewhat negative thoughts would go through my mind.
Anyways, the round was fun and now I feel like I have the golf bug tbh. It is like the perfect sport for me just now in the sense that it gets me out of the house and off technology for long periods of time, and you can also end up playing with random people and have good conversations in the process!
I went to the gym twice this week too (doing an upper body workout one day, and a lower the other) and went to a gym class for only the second time since I've been a member.
Btw, I have to highlight the importance of the book 'the wisdom of groundhog day' in all of this. I bought it last weekend from a charity shop, and it was almost as if it was placed there in that shop on purpose (perhaps it's the universe helping me out). I cannot overstate how good this book is (at least for me, at my current point in life) so I would definitely recommend it if you are looking to go down the route of being more present, more conscious in your daily life and want to break out of the unconsciousness that daily habits, routines etc can inevitably bring.
I've not finished it yet, but that book, along with the law of attraction (which I read a couple times in December while on holiday), have had a massive, positive impact on my life and on my outlook. So I would definitely recommend both books, especially if you feel like you are on a bit of a 'spiritual' journey and wish to feel happier, more content, more grateful etc in your daily life.
Anyways, I am going to continue with the routine of leaving my phone in another room when I go to bed at night. I assume I will start to use it a little more at other times of the day, but I still plan to often leave it at home as much as possible when I don't think I'll need it- for example when I go to the gym etc.
I want to spend more time outside, around other people and having new experiences. I want to spend less time staring mindlessly at a small, rectangular screen and allowing precious minutes, hours and days of my life to slip by.
Poker-
I ended up playing poker tonight, as planned, but the games weren't amazing and it was pretty difficult to get in hands due to the 500z pool kinda dying (and then several $1k tables etc died too). So I only played for like 2:30 hours, and ended up having a breakeven session. In literally my first hand of the session, I doubled up bvb in a 3bet pot with AA against a pretty sticky call down. Sometimes it's good to have the image of someone who likes to bluff a lot! It's just not so good when you are bluffing and then they make the same call down haha.
The plan was to play five days, as usual, Tuesday-Friday and grind Sunday, but I didn't play on Thursday as my friend showed up for a surprise visit. Overall I'm pretty happy that I even played four days tbh, cos I had almost no motivation to grind this week, and before basically every session it was a struggle to sit down at the tables and put in some hands.
The good thing is, however, that my pre session anxiety seems to have completely dissolved this year (which always held me back for the past few years), so I'm much better nowadays at sitting down on days that I plan to grind on. In the past it was much more a case of playing when I felt like playing, which isn't a good recipe for getting in a lot of hands as it's always easy to rationalise why you should take another day off.
I'm not too far off being able to shot take $5k again. Though I'm not in any rush as I know it's only a matter of time if I keep playing well, studying etc. The most important thing is to avoid complacency when you are running decent, as it's easy to get cocky when you are on a bit of a winning streak.
So it doesn't really matter if I have a really good session or a really bad session, I am still showing up for my study the next day and approaching if with the exact same intensity, regardless of how the previous days session went.
Tomorrow I will (likely) take the day off, as part of my usual Monday/Saturday day off schedule. I have a call with a poker friend in the evening, though I am somewhat tempted to also try to grind at some point because I will be away next weekend- meaning that I miss out on the Sunday grind. So I could grind Monday-Friday and hit my five days that way instead. Though in reality I might just be happy to hit four days, given that I am feeling quite burnt out.
Anyways we shall see. Back to the weekly posts again on here again too.
GG.
March 25, 2024 | 2:16 a.m.
Also, this ties in to my post the other week about work or play. I want to do more 'play' when I am grinding- so this tends to involve taking myself less seriously, joking around with others, showing some cards etc.
Of course when I enter a pot then all bets are off and I will be trying my hardest to win that pot, but I want to make sure that I am having as much fun as possible while I work and not just treating it like another job.
March 25, 2024 | 1:28 a.m.
HodorIsKing Hey man, good question!
If I'm playing online I chat quite regularly, just because I am sitting alone in my office and I quite like interacting and having banter with other people. I also think it's very important to interact with fish (especially if they are initiating the chat themselves) so that they have an enjoyable experience at the tables. I am making money from them, so the least I can do is to be nice to them and to treat them well.
I really don't have any ulterior motive behind my talk at the tables. I never try to get reads or tilt my opponents. If someone trolls me then I will often troll them back at the next opportunity, but apart from that, I will always be respectful of my opponents.
I don't like to use underhand tactics to get an edge on my opponents. I am confident enough in my game that I will have an edge on most of my opponents through poker skill alone. Imo people that need to tilt others are usually just shit at poker, so have to get an edge from somewhere else.
In general I won't talk when I'm in a hand though. If I'm playing live then I will never talk when I'm in a hand because I am not overly confident playing live and I think I give away some tells. So I will just try to remain as stoic as possible, then go back to talking afterwards.
However I tend to find that online players are more friendly/nice than live ones, so I usually talk more to the online guys than when I'm playing live. Online players have less ego than live players, so they tend to be easier and more fun to chat to.
March 25, 2024 | 1:20 a.m.
Day 6- free time
There is only just over a day left of this 'challenge' but in reality I will likely be continuing this beyond the end of the week. In all honesty I have used my phone slightly more than I'd have liked to, but 30 minutes per day is very difficult to remain under when it can take you 20+ minutes just to catch up and reply to some messages. I've still been listening to podcasts while I cook, too. In a sense I think that I should stop this, in order to remain more present etc, but in another sense I really enjoy it, so why should I?
If I was literally listening to music/podcasts etc during all of my daily activities, then I'd accept that I had a problem with simply doing the activity and being present in it- but that's not the case. When I go for a walk I don't listen to anything, similarly when I am at the gym, playing golf or on a hike. Tomorrow I will be playing golf where I am outside for 3+ hours and completely disconnected from technology.
When I leave the house now, I throw my phone in a drawer and leave it at home. It's weird, cos for the past 15 years or so I have always walked around with a wallet in my right pocket and a phone in my left. I never alternate which item goes in which pocket, it's always the same. Now I am just walking around with a wallet in my right pocket and nothing in my left. It's weird, but at a certain point I think it's important to question WHY we are doing certain things in our daily lives, so that we do not simply drift through life unconsciously, before arriving on our death beds with a lifetime of regrets and missed opportunities.
If I were to ask you if you thought having, and using, a smartphone on a daily basis was a net positive, or a net negative, what would you say?
I am genuinely curious, so feel free to share your thoughts and opinions below. For me, at least, it's a net negative. So when I look through my life and figure something is a net negative, then I will usually cut it out- like with alcohol etc too. So below I will share some of the positive aspects (in my opinion) of using a smartphone, and some of the negatives.
Positives-
1-Useful apps- whether that be maps, Duolingo to learn a language, chess.com to grind chess, spotify to listen to music/podcasts etc.
2-Entertainment- if we are on a long flight, train journey or simply waiting in line, we can tap in to our phone and instantly be entertained in some fashion.
3-Easy to contact friends/family- whether that be through social media, facetime or by simply calling or messaging them.
4-A web browser in our pocket- we don't need to load up our laptop or computer, we can access google (or in my case Brave) in a fraction of the time.
5-A handy torch- in all honesty I don't even own a torch. Putting out the bins at midnight would become more problematic without my phone.
Now I will go through each point and attempt to debunk them.
1- This one I can't debunk in all honesty.
Without a smartphone then you couldn't access these apps, so it just depends how highly you value them. You could always learn through other means (like taking a Spanish class, buying a Spanish dictionary etc), but for things like maps there isn't really a good alternative imo.
2- Read a book or a magazine. Buy an old Gameboy or play cards with a friend while on the train/flight. Buy an old Ipod and listen to music. Become more present and stop seeking entertainment cos you are in a queue for two minutes.
3- A basic phone can still call/text. Sure you can't facetime them, but you could always just meet up with them if you wanted to see them so badly- unless they are in a different country or something.
4- Again, you can't really debunk this.
However, I would say do you actually need a web browser in your pocket? Do you need to fact check 24/7? If you wanted to check something, you could easily take a mental or physical note of it and check it later on in the day on your computer.
5- Buy a torch for £5-10.
So imo only points one and four are valid arguments, the rest you can easily find an alternative. I guess we have to assess whether these two points are worth the negative points that owning/using a smartphone inevitably bring.
Negatives-
1- Huge time drain. This cannot be overstated. I heard on Joe Rogan's podcast that the average teen uses their smartphone for nine hours per day! That is just insanity. Personally I used it nothing like this much, but I guess I also go on my computer etc for work, so perhaps this cancels some of it out.
What else could you be doing with this spare time?
2- Destroys your attention span. If you need constant stimulation, check your phone in between sets at the gym, on the train, in a queue in a shop, as you take a shit, when you are out for a meal with a friend, then you have no attention span.
3- Takes away from the present moment. Imo it's extremely difficult to enjoy and live in the present moment when we are on, or tempted to go on our phones all the time. There is something special about just staring out of the window while on a train, or in a car etc. However, when we have a phone in our hands then we are so much more likely to seek out some form of entertainment as we take that journey, instead of staring out the window and watching the trees, fields, houses, animals go by as we speed past them.
4- Makes us unaware of our surroundings. When we are walking around and staring at our phones, we stop being aware of our surroundings. We might be putting ourselves in to more danger by not looking around and seeing the shifty guy walking towards us, or seeing the speeding car weave carelessly towards us.
5- Expensive. I bought my Iphone a couple years ago for around £500, but I can imagine they are a lot more expensive now. You could easily get a decent, basic phone for one tenth of the price.
Now I guess the challenge is to compare the positives and see if they outweigh the negatives. In my personal opinion, they do not. Does this mean I will throw my Iphone in the bin? No. But there is a good chance that I will buy a more basic phone, so that I can alternate between the two (perhaps taking my Iphone with me when I go travelling, as I will need maps etc a lot more than if I am at home) and using the basic phone more often at home.
Either way, I am very happy that I finally decided to do this challenge. I think that everyone knows we are, to some extent, addicted to our smartphones. It's just become so common now that we all seem to prefer to ignore the issue and sweep it under the rug.
For me, the challenge is now to find enough things to fill my day with. All of a sudden I have a lot more free time, and less urge to use other forms of entertainment like TV etc. I will need to find more hobbies, get outside more, spend more time with people in order to fill out my waking hours. Ideally I would be able to get up earlier in the day, so that I could make use of the daylight, but unfortunately I play poker between 8pm-12am (roughly) so it would make no sense to wake up at 8am as I would be too tired by the time that I would start my session.
However, I would much rather have this problem than have the opposite problem of too little time- which can easily happen when you wake up and grind chess for four hours lol.
The most valuable asset of a material life is money, but the most
valuable asset of a simple life is time.
It's time I started taking time more seriously, and made the most of each and every day.
Back to the grind tomorrow!
March 23, 2024 | 10:34 p.m.
Day five- running on fumes
Life-
It was time to get back on the grind today after an unplanned day off yesterday, and the preparation leading up to my session involved going back to the gym too. Today was leg day (which I actually enjoy) and so I done a leg workout consisting of squats, followed by some machine exercises and farmers carries.
I usually don't do farmers carries, but I've been watching a lot of The Stoltman Brothers (Scottish strongmen) videos recently, so it inspired me to add a new exercise to the workout. The problem was that the gym area was too busy to use the dumb bells, so I walked to a different area where the only option was either very light dumb bells, or plates. I warmed up with a 20kg plate in each hand, then tried to do 2x 20kg plates in each hand, but I couldn't really hold on to them properly as they were too thick to hold on to, so it didn't really work. So next time I will just have to either do a longer distance with the 20kg plates, or go at a quieter time so that I can use the dumb bells. Either way it was a cool exercise and I feel like it's probably good for your core strength and especially your grip strength.
Cos I've been getting out of my bed earlier (as I'm not staying up as late watching Youtube, and not wasting time on my phone in my bed in the mornings either) then I've been able to go to the gym a little earlier too. This means that I can enjoy longer in the sauna/spa area. I've started taking a book with me again, so I tend to read for a bit after exiting the sauna. I think that if you struggle to maintain motivation and consistency in terms of going to the gym, then join one with a spa and reward yourself by going to it after every workout. It's like a cheat code, cos even if you can't really be bothered going for a workout, you will go regardless in order to go to the sauna/steam room etc. So nowadays I find it pretty easy to go to the gym, even though I lost all motivation to go to it a couple years ago and barely went last year either.
Scotland were playing Holland tonight, in a match that I wanted to go out and watch, but it would have meant pushing back my poker session from 8pm until around 10pm, and I also knew that there was a good chance we would lose tonight (we did) and so I would probably be kinda tilted after watching it. So I made the mature decision not to watch it, and instead grind instead. This would mean I would be finished before 12am, and so I could also get up at a reasonable time on Saturday and make the most of my day off.
Poker-
Fortunately the session went well again. I lost a bit back towards the end, but it was still a good, profitable session. There were quite a few $1k tables running, mostly around this kind of reg/fish guy. I mean he is not terrible by any means, but he makes enough mistakes to make it worthwhile grinding when he is at the table (even though WR's will probably be relatively low, especially compared to playing against proper fish or even whales). 500z had a massive pool too, at one point with around 40 entries or so. The bulk of them were regs, but it was still fun to get in some zoom hands and the boost in hands per hour that it inevitably brings.
I even played a 530bb pot at 500z, which was kind of crazy.
In all honesty before the session, again, I felt a little burnt out and wasn't too bothered to play. However, I overcame these thoughts and put in some hands regardless. I am going to head back to my parents next weekend, and hang out with my friend (the one who is back from Australia) and probably catch up with other friends too. So this made it easier in a sense. I will get some time off poker to reset and recover from this burnout, but I have to earn that time off- and you don't earn it by lying on the sofa watching TV!
Phone challenge-
I've hardly been on my phone all day. I think I may have been on it like 15-20 minutes total. In all honesty this challenge is pretty easy, but has also made me realise how much of my life I was wasting, staring at a small rectangular screen for hours on end and for no real benefit other than to satisfy my minds insatiable appetite for stimulation.
This 'detox' actually seems to be having quite a big effect. I sat and watched TV for like 1 hour or 1:30 hours after my session had concluded, but towards the end my mind actually said 'enough is enough' and didn't want to watch it any longer. So it seems like I am, perhaps, starting to rewire my brain so that I don't just crave mind numbing stimulation in every spare hour of the day.
Reading is also much easier too. In the past few months, I have often sought out something more stimulating (like watching Youtube) instead of reading in my down time. My mind would crave something like that, and struggle to focus on reading as it was 'too boring'. But at the moment I can easily read 20-30 pages in one sitting, and I am probably averaging 40-50 pages per day atm. Which is a lot more than the 10(ish) that I read on average per day.
In the past I have switched my diet and stopped drinking alcohol. It seems like this challenge may lead me towards correcting the next leak in my life- the smartphone addiction!
Anyways, tomorrow I will take the day off and do something different- though I'm not quite sure what yet. I just want to get a good sleep tonight and make sure that I am fully ready for Sunday's session. I have kind of scrapped playing tournaments on Sunday's for the past month or so, and just switched back to playing cash on that day instead. I am sure I will get back in to them again later on this year, but for now I am happy to focus on cash instead- and on moving up in stakes!
GG.
March 23, 2024 | 2:58 a.m.
Day 4- Unplanned day off
Life-
Today the plan was to wake up around 12pm, get in an hour or so of study and then go to the gym/sauna before getting on the grind later on in the evening. However, this plan was quickly torn up when, at around 9:30am, I was awoken by a ring of my doorbell. My friend moved to Australia around 1.5 years ago and I've not seen him since. We keep in touch, messaging every so often, but it's an old friendship that doesn't really need a ton of contact to maintain.
Whenever we see each other then it was always just going to continue from where we left, due to the fact we have known each other since primary school- actually I think I went to nursery with him when I was aged like 4 or 5. I'm not saying we have been friends this entire time, but I have known him for around 25 years and the bulk of my life.
He had messaged me the other day to say that a parcel was going to be delivered my on Thursday morning, and that I needed to be in in order to receive it. I didn't think much of it other than thanking him for seemingly buying me a present randomly. Anyways it turns out that it wasn't a present, he had come back for a two week long visit instead! So obviously that meant by days plans were thrown out the window (though of course I didn't mind). I didn't get to sleep until after 4am, so I had only gotten around 5 hours sleep- I usually try to get 8 hours as this is perfect for me.
So we had a catch up, went out for 'lunch' (even though it was my breakfast) but then we realised we were both very tired- he had barely slept for the past couple of days and I wouldn't mind a power nap either. Well, that turned in to around 3 hours and, at that point, it was about time for him to head back down the road- though we are catching up again next weekend.
Anyways, after this weird middle of the day sleep, I felt pretty groggy. I got in an hours study, looking over some 3bet pots from yesterdays session, but I couldn't shift this grogginess and decided that it was better not to play today. This definitely wasn't ideal, given the fact that Scotland are playing Holland tomorrow as well, in a game that I would have liked to have watched. So playing today was a no brainer, but ultimately sometimes social plans take priority over grinding, and today was one of those days. I can always play an extra 1-2k hands another day to make up for today, but I might not see my friend for another 1.5 years (well, apart from next weekend haha).
Whenever I take an unplanned day off, I always try to at least make it somewhat productive. So I think that even if I don't feel like playing, then there's no reason that I shouldn't get in some study. Actually, these are the kind of days where you could just get in 2-3 hours and completely fry your brain cos you aren't going to be playing later on in the day. I was just happy reviewing all the 3bet pots that I tagged from yesterdays session though. Even though I had a good session yesterday, I still wanted to review plenty hands that I was unsure about and to give me clarity for the next time a similar spot arises.
In all honesty I have no idea how often other cash regs study, but I usually do 5-6 days per week, typically ranging from 1-2 hours per day (though most study sessions are a little over an hour). Unless I am away elsewhere, or have a friend over to visit etc, then there is literally no reason that I cannot sit down and do an hours study. Even as I type this I am considering doing a second, shorter study session before I wind down for the night and start watching some brainless TV- most likely another couple episodes of Yugioh!
One thing that I do love about poker is it's ability to humble you, and to make you realise how little you know. However, this is not a demeaning 'you know nothing and are stupid' humbling, it's a 'lets improve/correct your thought process' humbling. Improvement is amazing. It's cool to look back at the stakes we were playing several years ago and see our progress, or to see what weights we lifted when we started going to the gym, or our 5k times when we just picked up running again- then compare them all to the stakes/weights/times we are doing now. Of course, sometimes we might have peaked in the past. For example, even though I am better at poker now than I was several years ago, I am weaker at the gym and I haven't ran in like 6 months, so my marathon condition would absolutely smoke me in a race in my present condition. But it's not only about where you are now, it's about where you started off at, and where you got to.
When I done my first 5k run during lockdown, I almost threw up and shit myself simultaneously. I was a tall, skinny guy who done a lot of walking and thought he was quite fit- wrong! Fast forward to marathon day, where I ran it in around 3:40 and far exceeded my 4:00 target time. So even though, in my current condition, it would probably take me four days rather than four hours to run a marathon, I know that I have this massive improvement and high ceiling in my locker, if required. We can't peak at literally everything simultaneously in our lives. We can't prioritise poker, running, lifting weights, dating, reading, coaching, blogging, cooking, socialising, travelling, hiking, volunteering all at once. Perhaps we can select a couple of these things at once, focus on them and give them our all, before shifting our focus again (especially if we want variety in our lives).
For now my priority is poker and on being in good shape. Not marathon running shape, not peak physical strength shape. Just 'I'm going to the gym twice per week and doing some other sports on the side' shape. If I compare my social life now to it in my late teens/early twenties, then I might also become frustrated and sad. However, it's just the nature of life. I am happy that I enjoyed such a fun time as a younger, alcohol drinking guy who had no worries other than to get the cheapest £1 drinks and have just enough money left over for a McDonalds the next day.
Imo it's kind of cool to look back on parts of our lives and see how much we have changed, what was going for us, what wasn't going for us and on how different we are now to where we were. Of course there will always be aspects of our lives in the past that were 'better' than what we have now, but there are also plenty aspects of our lives now that are 'better' than what we had back then. For example, as a teen/early twenties I was pretty insecure overall and, for the most part, I have fixed this through meditation, self improvement books etc. So would I actually want to go back to this point in my life where I was always heading out to bars/clubs, meeting up with friends and trying to chat up girls? Not really. But am I glad that I experienced this? Absolutely.
Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened.
So perhaps we aren't currently in our best physical or mental shape, perhaps we are on a downswing and had to move down in stakes, perhaps we have lost several friends over the years or are just out of a breakup. There are so many reasons or excuses to be sad, but conversely (assuming we frame things differently) there are so many reasons to be optimistic.
We can still get up tomorrow and go to the gym, we can start of our day with a meditation in an attempt to rewire our brain, we can put in some extra study (but not too long haha) and battle to move back up in stakes, we can get out of our comfort zone and meet new people and make new friends and we can walk down the street and fall in love (like that Lego meme) with the cute girl who just smiled at us as she walked by.
We are told to embrace negative poker variance and downswings, but perhaps we should be told to embrace life variance and life downswings too. That way we appreciate the upswings so much more.
Phone challenge-
To be honest I have one admission to make- I have been listening to podcasts while I cook! I just enjoy it too much haha, and I'm not staring at a screen or anything so I don't think it's a huge deal, though arguably I should be more present when I cook instead of following a random Joe Rogan conversation.
I've still massively limited by screen time, and pretty much only use my phone atm to reply to messages. I've been leaving my phone at home when I head out (for example today with my friend) and haven't watched any Youtube videos on it, and barely open Instagram either. Its funny but when I watch Youtube or whatever on my TV, then after like 30 mins to an hour I just say to myself this is enough and come off it. Where as, for some reason, if I'm watching it on my phone then I can watch it for much longer periods without feeling the need to come off it.
I read 50 pages today too, basically split evenly between the two different books that I'm reading. I'm honestly quite tempted to buy a crappy flip phone that I can alternate between when I feel like it. I'm not saying I'm going to completely get rid of my smartphone (it's still very useful in lots of ways) but I think it would be good to have a more basic phone so that I can do this kind of 'challenge' on a more consistent basis.
When we were out eating at the restaurant, there were two older women sitting next to us, and both were just staring at their phones. It was kind of sad tbh, that we value a piece of technology over the company of a friend or a family member. This is obviously very common and you see it all the time when you walk past restaurants, bars, pubs etc.
Anyways I'm not preaching, cos I'm sure I do this (occasionally) too, but it's just an observation.
Back to the grind tomorrow, unless I get another friend from Australia arriving at my door in the morning!
GG.
March 22, 2024 | 12:40 a.m.
Day 3- A productive 'rest' day
I planned on playing golf today, but late last night after my session, I was kind of dreading having to get up 'early' to go and play. I definitely wanted to play, but the problem was I didn't get to sleep until after 4am. My tee time was booked for 12pm, but its a 30 minute drive to the golf course, which meant I needed to get up at 11am.
Having been at the gym on Monday and done a kettlebell class on Tuesday (as well as getting in more than 10k steps on both days too, walking to the gym and home afterwards) meant I felt kind of drained. Playing/studying poker can be draining too. So today ended up being a stay at home day, where I didn't bother leaving the house- and I was happy not too!
I had a study call with my friend scheduled, which ended up lasting around 2:30 hours (around 2 hours of study and 30 mins of chatting). Afterwards my brain felt completely fried. For me, around 1 hour of study is optimal, so long as I do so in an efficient and deep way. When you get towards 2 hours then, assuming you are studying intensely, it can start to have a detrimental effect on your ability to play poker later on in the day.
Think of it this way. If you are playing a game of football (soccer) then you would do a warmup beforehand that involves some jogging, stretching, ball work etc and then perhaps some sprinting, just to get a little more blood flowing as you approach kick off. You wouldn't run a half marathon before playing an important game, would you?
It's the same in poker. We want to approach our daily study, assuming we are also playing poker on the same day, as something more akin to a football warmup. However, we still want to be doing slightly more than a warmup, cos we are wanting to learn before our session, not merely warm up our brains before playing.
So there is a fine line between learning just enough in your pre session study, where it will both benefit you and also serve as a mental warmup before playing, and overdoing it completely, frying your brain and burning yourself out before you begin your session. This is completely fine if you are taking the day off playing and just want to get in a bunch of study. But if you are playing on the same day, then your study should serve as both a learning process, yet also a warmup process too.
Imo if you are able to study 2+ hours per day before playing then either you aren't studying very intensely (most likely you are just randomly checking hands to see if you played them 'correctly') or you are simply unaware that you are burning yourself out before you start playing, and are likely playing worse as a result.
In Luke Johnson's video at the start of this year he also mentioned about how he 'only' studies for around an hour per day, too. However, he obviously does so in a very efficient manner, as he is a very theoretically sound player who has a great understanding of the game.
So for me today, 2 hours was probably a little much, so I made sure to take a couple hour break before I started playing, so that my brain could have a bit of a rest before I got in to the poker mindset again.
The session didn't start very well. I got stacked in a couple of tilting spots, and seemed to continue the previous session where I could barely win a pot towards the end. However, towards the end of the session, I started to run hot and in the space of a couple hundred hands, I had completely turned the session around and was now in healthy profit.
I'm not gonna lie and say it was skill, it was mostly just down to making good hands in big pots, but overall I think I played quite well and managed to ride out the negative variance at the start of the session to reap the rewards of the positive variance towards the end. It was also a fun session in terms of banter at the tables. I wrote my post on 'work or play' a couple weeks ago, and since then I have tried to have more fun on the tables when I am grinding. I quite like interacting with other players at the table, and quite a few of us were all chatting/having a laugh during our sessions tonight.
I also managed to win a $6k pot at $2knl, so we take that! I have quite a clear plan on how I am going to get to $5k+ again, but I need to win a bit more before I will shot take those stakes. Hopefully it won't be too long though, ideally in the next couple of months I will be up there again and take my 2bi shot!
In all honesty I'm not sure how much longer I will play poker for. For the past couple of years I have almost felt like each of these years could be my last. However, it also seems pretty dumb to 'throw away' something that I am pretty good at, making a good income at and have a ton of freedom in doing. Yet I still don't think that is a very healthy, long term profession (at least for me).
Anyways this may seem contradictory towards my goals of moving up etc, but ultimately I will just take it year by year, until I no longer want to play. Most likely in my next career, whatever that may be, then I will be earning a fraction of what I do now and starting at the bottom. However there is more to life than money, and I don't want to do the same job for 20-30+ years and auto pilot through life. And the good thing is that, if you develop good, strong poker fundamentals, then they will never leave you. You can always come back at some point in the future.
Sure, you will have to shake off the rust etc, but GTO doesn't change. A solver approved play now will still be a solver approved play in 2-3 years. So perhaps what I may find that I need, is a year out of poker (at some point in the near future) trying out some other form of work, before coming back to the game.
Who knows. For now I am just studying and grinding. Trying to play well and move up. No more mental restrictions, only opportunities and open doors. It's time for me to walk through them.
GG.
March 21, 2024 | 4:16 a.m.
Day 2- Back to work
Poker-
On Tuesday it was time to get back on the grind, after taking the previous day off. At the moment I am feeling close to burn out in all honesty, and feel like I need a holiday or a week or two off to get away from poker and mentally reset. The first two months of the year were very consistent in terms of my playing schedule and volume, however this month has been more of a struggle. Before many of the sessions, I've had zero motivation to play- but I am quite proud in the sense that I have played regardless. In the past I would have rationalised about why I should have taken a day off, but now I have quite good clarity with what I want to achieve.
At the start of this thread I highlighted that I want to play 200-300k hands this year of cash. So my plan has been to hit 20k hands each month, and do so for the first five months of the year so that I hit 100k hands by the end of May. That will enable me to essentially have two months off where I can do whatever I want, and then I simply have to hit the same volume goals for the last five months of the year. Of course I won't take the entire June/July off, but I have two weddings, I am going to the Euros in Germany and I would also like to do a lot more exploring in and around the Inverness area- to make the most of moving up here.
So when I am struggling, or have literally zero motivation to play on these cold, dark, March nights, I look forward to the carrot of a warm Summers day, where I have complete freedom and no obligation to play or study. Of course it's vital to live in the present moment as much as possible, but when our present moment doesn't want to do something, sometimes we have to use the delayed gratification tactic in order to get ourselves to sit down at our desk and put in some hands.
Overall the session didn't go very well, but I think I played pretty well- which is the most important thing! It started off well enough, then I went the last hour or so losing pretty much every single pot.
One hand that tilted me was when a reg made a flush in a 3bet pot with a hand that is a pure fold pre flop, cos that's obviously a variance free 4bb profit you 'should' be picking up pre flop, instead of a 100bb+ loss post flop. However he punted off in an almost identical spot with another hand that is a pure fold pre flop the week before, so I guess these things even out and we should focus on playing +EV poker, and enjoy when our opponents make -EV mistakes- even if we do lose the pot in the moment.
There was another hand where I folded top pair in a 3bet pot when the FD completed, and my opponent showed a bluff. But in game I had a pretty clear game plan- call when I had a FD blocker along with my TP, and fold when I don't. The solver agreed and went for that exact strategy, so my slight frustration was alleviated when my thought process was proved to be correct by the solver. It's pretty funny how results oriented we can be sometimes, where as a solver just cares about making good, +EV decisions and wouldn't care less if an opponent called too wide pre flop and made a flush, or bluffed you off a hand you're supposed to pure fold. But I'm a human I guess, and I had a losing session so I'm going to be slightly more irrational than usual!
Life-
In terms of the no phone challenge, it's going pretty well so far. Yesterday I got in a bunch of reading again. Starting off the day with a 12 minute, silent meditation followed by some reading, before getting in some poker study and then heading to the gym for a kettlebell class. At the moment I am going to the gym twice per week, but as the weather is also getting better, I am also trying to play golf once per week too. I feel like I should be doing some sort of class at the gym once per week as well, cos atm I'm not really doing any cardio except from walking. I'd never done a kettlebell workout before, and it was funny that I was struggling with 10kg kettlebells at one point just cos my body wasn't used to this high rep, no rest form of exercise.
Afterwards I went to the sauna as usual, which is always a nice reward for a workout or a successful gym class. Then it was back home, before making some food and of course getting on the grind.
So far I have not really missed using a phone at all tbh. In the mornings I do notice it a bit, where my mind is kind of craving some sort of digital stimulation when I wake up, as it's so used to me checking Instagram, the BBC sport and watching a Youtube video or two. However, ultimately these are just habits that I have picked up over the past 5-10 years, and so they can also be undone. I think that after I do this week long challenge, I will likely stick with the habit of leaving my phone in another room when I go to sleep, and of doing a silent meditation (no music etc) and reading upon waking up each day. This will also curb by chess addiction! So it's a win win haha.
Anyways, time to get in some study and then get on the grind later on tonight. I am more motivated to play today, actually!
GG.
March 20, 2024 | 4:15 p.m.
Day 1- more hours in the day
Last night I ended up playing poker until 4am. Needless to say, this kind of ruined my sleep pattern and I don't think I got to sleep until closer to 6am, as I like to chill after playing and not attempt to go straight to sleep afterwards. It doesn't seem too healthy to me to go from thinking intensely for 4+ hours straight, to then lying in your bed trying to fall asleep. So typically watching TV/Youtube etc helps to dumb me down a little before I fall asleep.
It's funny cos recently I've got back in to Yugioh. As a kid me and my brothers friends would collect and play Pokemon cards (as well as the Gameboy games), but for whatever reason I preferred Yugioh. The PS2 game of it was really good too, from what I remember. I actually bought an old silver, slimline PS2 a couple of months ago. I haven't owned a console since I was a teenager and had an Xbox 360 (I'd usually play COD 4 online with my friends). However, I just had the urge (mostly for nostalgic purposes) to buy either a PS1, or a PS2. Ultimately I went for a PS2, just cos the graphics are a little better and there are more good games for it. It's funny but the PS2 is actually the best selling games console of all time, even though, naturally, we tend to buy the more up to date versions of consoles nowadays.
Anyways, I started watching Yotuber's opening Yugioh cards, then that got me thinking of how I still had some cards at my parents house, in a random box somewhere. So I ended up picking them up while driving home the other week, and I also started to watch the anime too. I have a few friends who watch anime, but I've never been that bothered about it tbh. However I used to watch this as a kid too, and it's quite good to watch it after grinding as it's pretty relaxing, but you are actually following a storyline- instead of watching random, unrelated Youtube videos. The first series is almost 50 episodes, and I think I'm on 40 or 41, but they are less than 20 minutes long, so it doesn't take too long to work your way through them.
I've not actually played the PS2 that much, just cos I don't like the idea of playing another game after playing poker, and atm I am not taking that many days off. However, I'm sure I'll play it more in the Summer etc when I am planning to take more time off poker to get outside, play golf, go hiking, travelling etc. It will be a nice way to wind down after spending most of the day outside.
Today-
Like I said in my post last night, this week I plan to use my phone as little as possible, and today I achieved that. Usually when I wake up I like to watch Youtube for around 30 mins to an hour (probably not the healthiest habit tbh) as there is a channel that does a 30 min video each day about Rangers (though I watch it at 1.5x speed so it's only 20 mins for me haha). Then I will quickly check Instagram, read the sport on the BBC website and then do a 12 minute meditation, followed either by some chess puzzles, or some games of chess. The problem with me and chess is that when I go on a losing streak, I can't stop playing. There have been days where I've laid for 3-4 hours in my bed, upon waking up, grinding chess. Obviously this is a colossal waste of time (even though it happens rarely, maybe once every month or so) and I often get tilted as well lol. So it's probably one of the worst ways you could start your day- drain your brain of energy, waste several hours of the day and get tilted in the process.
However, last night I left my phone in another room so that option wasn't there. So I ended up doing the 12 minute meditation without music, then followed this up by reading 10 or so pages of the book 'Prisoners of Geography'. Imo this is a far superior way to start the day- even though I did wake up just before 1pm due to the late night last night. So far I've been really enjoying the book, and enjoy learning more about geopolitics- which I didn't know a whole lot about before. It's amazing how something as simple as a river can be the cause of conflict that, perhaps, could even lead to wars. For example it was discussing how Ethiopia have built a dam somewhere along the Nile, that is capable of storing a years worth of water. Egypt are almost completely reliant on the Nile as their water source, but now Ethiopia can control the flow rate with which the water runs. So, if they decided, they could essentially turn off the water that is flowing in to Egypt (or at least that's what I garnered from the book).
There were plenty more interesting things in the book, about why Africa continues to be a poor continent, about why the USA remains the superpower of the world, about why Europe needs an EU- otherwise conflict may arise again between France and Germany- and even a snippet about Scotland too! If we get independence from the UK, then we won't be allowed back in to the EU for 10+ years. So that would leave us in a very vulnerable position! This book is what inspired my previous post. Clearly it wasn't a particularly popular post, but I wanted to discuss it, so I wrote it regardless.
I also picked up the book 'The wisdom of groundhog day' at the weekend from a charity shop. I like buying books from a charity shop for several reasons. 1- they are cheaper. To me it doesn't make a ton of sense to spend £15 on a book that you are, often, going to read once. 2- the money goes to a good cause. 3- you end up finding random books that you would never select in a book store, due to the randomness of the books for sale (as they are all donations).
I will analyse the book a little more once I've read more of it- as I've only read one chapter so far. All in all I read almost 50 pages today, between both books. I went to the gym and done an upper body workout, then went to the sauna. I got in just over an hours worth of study, focusing on 3bet pots in position. When I left to go to the gym, I just left my phone in a drawer at home. I didn't see any point in taking it with me.
Overall it just seemed like there were more hours in the day. When we, subconsciously or consciously, write off large chunks of the day as 'phone time' then we are writing off chunks of time where we could be doing something else- like reading a book, going to the gym, studying etc. Of course there are times, like after a long poker session, where we want to do something fairly braindead (like watching Yugioh) but it's probably not a great way to start off our days in this manner.
Anyways I'm only one day in, so I can't say that I have learnt anything life changing yet. My first impression is merely that it feels like there are more hours in the day when you are not using your phone.
I didn't play today as I had a long session last night, and Monday's tend to be my day off regardless. I'll get back on the grind again tomorrow.
March 18, 2024 | 11:55 p.m.
Lausbub Hahah, but I always reply eventually! It's funny cos in the past I didn't mind messaging, but over the past six months or so I have grown to really dislike that form of communication. I think it's partly cos I live by myself now, so I am more interested in real conversations instead of digital ones. Where as in the past I was living with friends/family and then you are less reliant on meeting up with other friends on a daily/weekly basis, cos you have them to hang out with.
How about taking a book for the trams/subway? It's amazing how quickly those 5-10 pages compound over time.
When I was travelling through Eastern Europe last Summer I didn't have any phone data in quite a few of the countries, but I was getting bus journeys that could be 8-10 hours long. It's amazing though, even though I had books with me, I wasn't even bothered about reading. I would just look out the window or have conversations with other people on the bus. I made friends with this Swedish guy as we talked for most of one of these journeys. Your attention span quickly resets when you simply remove the option of going on your phone.
When there is no option you can go 8+ hours sitting on a bus without boredom, but when there is that option, you might struggle to do 5-10 minutes of sitting before you get bored and want to reopen your phone.
Fwiw I am not saying I could do that just now (sitting on a bus without a phone for that period of time) but I just mean that your brain always has that capacity to reset, even if we have trained ourselves to be constantly stimulated via our phones, laptops, tablets etc.
March 18, 2024 | 2:32 p.m.
One week challenge- no phone
I've been thinking about doing this for a while, and I've decided to begin this challenge on Monday morning and do it for the next week. I will post daily updates for the next week with my thoughts, what I've been up to etc.
I want to see what is possible if I minimise the time I spend on my phone. I'm only going to allow myself a maximum of 30 mins per day, but ideally this will be 5-10 mins and only really to do things such as responding to a message or booking a golf time via an app etc.
Usually when I wake up I meditate in my bed (playing some meditation music off Spotify) but I'm not going to allow myself to listen to music, nor podcasts. I'm not going to lie, the thing that is worrying me the most is not being able to listen to podcasts. I don't really like messaging any longer tbh, and often take ages to reply. I don't really listen to music on my phone either. So I tend to use it for mindless things like looking through Instagram and watching Youtube, as well as more 'productive' things such as listening to podcasts while I cook/wash the dishes etc.
I feel like there are a lot more hours in the day that are passing my by as I do mindless things, or even 'productive' things, on my phone. When I take away that option, then it will be interesting to see how I respond and what new things I will get up to in the coming week. I think it's pretty likely I'll finish my book in the next week, for example, even though I only planned to have it complete by the end of the month.
Anyways I better go chill for a bit and wind down after ending my poker session just before 4am.
GG.
March 18, 2024 | 4:12 a.m.
March 12, 2024 | 2:41 a.m.
Attention shortening device
Life-
I was listening to a podcast with Jeff Bezos not long ago on Lex Fridman's podcast. Tbh I don't know a ton about him, but I thought it would still be worth listening to as he is one of the worlds richest men- so clearly he is doing something right!
I think that even if you don't necessarily 'like' someone, then it can still be worth listening to them. Obviously I don't know him personally, but if i had to choose my favourite billionaire then it would have to be Elon Musk. He literally spent billions on an overpriced Twitter simply because he wanted to retain the power of free speech- something that seems to be disappearing before our very eyes in todays current society. He questions authority and isn't afraid to stick it to the man. In a society of sheep and political correctness, sometimes what we need is someone to say what we are all thinking. Sometimes what we need is someone with a spine and an opinion that doesn't go along with everything that the main stream media spout out on a daily basis.
Imo we are kind of at a dangerous time. Since the end of world war two we have, for the most part, as Europeans lived a peaceful and fruitful existence. Our standard of living has drastically improved, as has our life expectancy. More people can go to universities, more people can afford to travel and we can connect with people from anywhere in the world with the touch of a button. Almost all of us have access to an abundance of food and clean water.
However, at the same time we see unprecedented levels of suicide (especially from men), depression and an escalation in the tensions between Russia and NATO (as well as other 'wars', such as Israel and Gaza etc).
Why at a time of such prosperity, when the vast majority of Europe (and indeed much of the world) are living with a good standard of living, are we sad, depressed, suicidal and getting in to pointless wars?
I don't know exactly. I think that part of the issue is that in order to become a politician, you almost have to be sociopathic. Who would actually want to become a politician? Half the country probably hates you. Your pay isn't amazing. You get in to constant debates and it's other people jobs to literally try to make you look like a fool. You are constantly in the public eye and everything you do (especially if you make a mistake or two) will be scrutinized.
There's also something to be said about people that want to control others. It's not the empathetic, kind, generous people that want to get in to these sorts of positions (they will instead be doing caring jobs like nursing, being a doctor, a teacher, a sports coach etc), instead it's the narcissistic, sociopathic power hungry people. So do we think these sorts of people are going to make decisions that are for the good of the country and it's citizens? Or are they going to make decisions that are for the good of themselves?
If a caring, empathetic politician sees that getting in to x or y war will make the country, or indeed the politician(s), millions of Dollars/Pounds/Euros, then they will still reject this proposal because it will lead to the needless deaths of thousands of innocent people. They will not value profit over lives and safety.
However, if a narcissistic/sociopathic/power hungry politician is presented with the same profitability figures about a potential war with x or y country, then all they will see is the profit- not the collateral damage of war. They will not care if thousands of people are killed. They will not care if families are blown apart (both literally and figuratively). They will just care that their pockets are lined and that they continue to retain power of the populace, in the process.
In the news we are always told some bs reason about why we got in to yet another war, so that we just go along with it and don't question it. But the reality is that both the politicians and the systems we currently have are both rotten to the core. These jobs attract the wrong type of people, and the wrong type of people bring about the wrong type of outcomes for the country.
Imo we need to transcend wars and conflict. That's not to say we can be totally naive and get rid of all weapons, military etc over night, but more so that we should always be striving to avoid conflict, instead of striving to create it. However, with the people in charge of most countries, I struggle to see this happening any time soon.
Anyways back to the topic of the post. At one point Bezos talks about phones and calls them 'attention shortening devices'. I thought this was a great description of them and sums up them perfectly. A phone can be either a tool (that we use to research, to keep in contact with friends, to get directions to a good restaurant etc) or it can be a black hole that completely absorbs all of our attention and obliterates our attention span.
It's funny that in the past we would go the the cinema and watch a film that lasted 3+ hours. However, since then, every piece of video has been getting shorter and shorter, and with it, our attention spans have been doing the exact same. We went from films to TV shows/series that may last one hour per episode. Then we went to Youtube where a video may last 20-30 minutes. Now we are at the point where a lot of the content we consume could consist of videos lasting 30 seconds or less. Whether that be a Youtube short, a Tik Tok video or an Instagram story/reel. It's like we have been trained to become less and less patient, and to become more and more malleable to the short form content that is now thrust down our throats on a daily basis.
Bezos talks about doing things such as reading and listening to long form podcasts etc, as antidotes to the power and control of the attention shortening device. Sometimes I notice that my mind is itching to be stimulated. I mean don't get me wrong, I think I am much better in this respect than the average person (I never wear headphones in public, don't listen to music/use my phone in the gym etc or when I run etc) however, sometimes I still feel this sense of urgency for my mind to do something stimulating. Perhaps this is also a result of my work, where I am doing something very intellectually stimulating on a daily basis (whether that be study or playing) but I think that it mostly stems from things such as Youtube, that destroys your attention span and causes you to start watching videos when you are taking a shit.
Anyways, my plan is to continue to counter these issues in the coming year. I have joined a golf course, which will mean that I am outside at around 4 hours at a time, without going on my phone/technology etc. I am also going to get back in to hiking again, which often last much longer than 4 hours per walk/hike. And the plan is to read at least one book per month, for the remainder of the year. When I travel etc, then I can read a lot more (as I'm not working/studying/going to the gym etc). But on a daily basis, I can easily go a week without reading. So by aiming for one book per month (minimum) then this (assuming the book is around 300 pages long) is only 10 pages per day. Of course there will be several days where I don't open the book, but there will be others where I read 20-30 pages (like today).
I love podcasts too, they are definitely my favourite form of entertainment right now- even more so than television/video. Often my favourite part of the day is finding a good podcast to listen to as I make food. I can happily spend 1-2 hours in the kitchen, being absorbed in an interesting conversation (often learning things in the process) while also cooking- which is also very enjoyable for me.
Poker-
Anyways, I wrote a post late last week, but I wanted to get back on to the Monday night blog post slot- to get back in to a consistent routine in that regard. Poker is going well, though my volume is dropping a little recently. Fortunately I am playing very well (and also running well) so that's a nice combo. Tonight, for example, I was playing with such clarity that I have not experienced for a long time. I think it was a combination of preparing for the session well (going to the gym/sauna etc), getting in some good study earlier on in the day, eating healthy foods and generally just being in a good mood.
However, sometimes, for whatever reason, you just get in to the zone- and there's not any real or logical explanation that you can make for this happening. Other nights our minds are restless and distracted and it doesn't take us much resistance to push us over the edge and towards a session of frustration and tilt.
I guess this is what makes life interesting though. If every day was a flow state, zen like experience, then it would quickly become the norm and then we would take it for granted. Conversely, if every day was a stressful, tense experience, then our life satisfaction would quickly plummet, and we may well spiral towards depression and misery. It's the balance of 'good' days and 'bad' days that make life interesting, and mean that we appreciate those good days when they do arise.
Perhaps this is what the politicians are doing. They are keeping us on edge so that we do not take this nice, comfortable life for granted. Either that, or they are just making lots of money. But hey, at least the first option is a 'glass half full' perspective :)
GG.
March 12, 2024 | 2:29 a.m.
Great video! When was this session recorded? Maybe you mentioned in the previous video but I can't remember.
March 11, 2024 | 1:56 p.m.
Zamadhi108 Wow that was very interesting to read, I am going to have to buy that book now (though I have a fair few other books that I will read first). It's funny that the first two types of people are (roughly) what I was describing in my post.
I am friends with a guy who is like the dabbler. He quit his job to try to become a professional poker player. Then when he was a poker player, he would play one format for a few months, before switching to another. From NL cash games, to NL mtt's and eventually to PLO cash. Finally, he started to get good at PLO, then what happened?
He quit to pursue trading lol.
Tbf I think he is still doing trading now, a few years on, but who knows how long that will last for. Perhaps he has finally change his ways, only time will tell. Though I believe he also started to learn card counting.
I told him several times that he needs to stick with one thing, get very good at it, then make a bunch of money before (if he still wants to) moving on to something different. However, he didn't listen of course.
Anyways thanks for sharing that. Did you have to type out that entire passage, or you managed to copy and paste it from somewhere? haha.
March 8, 2024 | 11:30 p.m.
Clarity
Life-
For me, clarity is a beautiful thing. Clarity is to arrive on the turn and the river, and know exactly what combos to bluff with. Clarity is knowing how thin you can jam on the river, and what combos are (slightly) higher EV to x back. Clarity is spending one hour studying one specific board texture, and then executing this newly learned information in game, the next time this texture/spot arises.
However, clarity does not just need to be theoretical. Clarity can also be to study one specific opponent (who you think may have some leaks/imbalances in their game), then come up with a game plan on how to counter them. Clarity is writing down five bullet points on their game, and then know exactly where to adjust the next time you play hands with them.
This preparation done off the tables, when you are able to think clearly, without time pressure, dollar pressure etc means that you are able to execute with a much clearer perspective the next time you do play a board texture/spot/opponent whom you have studied recently. Without adequate preparation, then you are simply button clicking and hoping for the best. Sure, your poker understanding may be slightly better than your opponents (thus giving you a small edge), but wouldn't it be better to have a much better understanding of the texture/spot/opponent than the guy you are in the hand with?
Is our goal in poker to always remain slightly ahead of our opponents, or are we striving to become the best poker version of ourselves? Where we constantly study, improve, refine, hone our game, and where we are always self assessing and remaining vigilant for any knowledge gaps in our game that we feel may need plugged asap.
At the moment, I have one line that I need to study. Whenever I arrive in this spot on latter streets, I feel like I am too passive and don't have enough clarity with exactly what I am trying to achieve. Whenever I get these feelings of discomfort about a particular spot, then I take this as a clear signal that I need to put in work off the tables in order to learn the logic and drivers behind the solver's strategies.
Then the next time a similar spot arises, instead of experiencing the feelings of unease and discomfort, we experience the feeling of clarity. We are like a Navy Seal who is ready to take out their enemies. We have gone from thinking intensely about how to reload our gun, to reloading with consummate ease and efficiency. It's gone from a slow, ponderous process to a form of art. From five seconds to a fraction of a second.
I heard a similar quote to this, and it really resonated with me-
How you do anything, is how you do everything.
At the start of the year, as is the case with most poker players, we right down some goals etc for the coming year. These could be poker related, or they could be something else like health or relationship related. However, the main thing is that we have a (rough) plan for how the year will look.
The first month of the year is already a good test for us in relation to the quote that we are discussing. If we are the type of person to have already abandoned all of our 2024 goals before the end of January, then we are very unlikely to be the type of person who can go far in poker. We have no discipline, no ability to stick with our plans and goals, and no capacity to push through- even when we temporarily lose the motivation to do something that we had already planned to do.
Now it's easy to say 'I want to be the best poker player in the world and make $1m this year, $2m next year and so on'. Literally any poker player could say that. However, we may also realise that in order to achieve that tough goal, we have to put in a ton of work- especially off the tables, with a solver etc.
After we realise that, then already the guys looking for a quick fix will fall by the wayside. They will start reading about investing, buying Bitcoin, betting on sports or something similar. They will ditch poker, and maybe return to it in a couple years time when they catch a second wind and decide that it's time to become the best poker player in the world all over again.
Then you have the guys that will become obsessed with something for a while, before losing interest in it and (probably) never touch it again. These are the guys that don't go to the gym for six months, then go every day throughout January- before becoming burnt out and then completely lose interest. They might even become quite good at poker, but don't have the patience to sit down every day, study, grind, rinse and repeat for years on end.
Finally, you have the guys that will get somewhere in poker. They might even work less hard than the obsessed guy, but the key difference is that these guys will have longevity, patience and a clear direction. They recognise that poker is a long term, sometimes tedious game of small, incremental improvements. This isn't a quick fix, get rich scheme. This is a 1% improvement over the course of a month. Followed by another 1% improvement over the course of a month, and so on.
And this is where I want to bring back in the subject of clarity. Like I said, like most other poker players, I plan out some goals at the start of each year. However, I also write goals for each month, so that I can have good clarity on what I want to achieve this month. I read in 'Eat that frog' about how you should then, select your three most important tasks and then rank them from 1-3 (or A-C) in order of importance.
This sounds like a very basic thing to do, but it's actually quite transformative imo. Before I used to spend a lot of time doing low importance things, instead of the higher priority goals/tasks. For example, spending 1-2 hours messaging people because I put on my daily checklist 'reply to messages'. Instead of studying, or instead of playing. Or perhaps I would go to the gym instead of playing.
Now don't get me wrong, of course health is very important too, but if I select 'play 20k+ hands of cash' as my most important (A goal) for the month, then I should always be prioritising poker over everything else- even if it's something productive such as going to the gym. Then if i select my B task to be 'redecorate spare room' then this will also take importance over everything else (except from grinding).
This clarity really helps me in my daily life, as I know exactly what I need to do.
Anyways, I have not played poker since last Friday as I took a little time off to visit my friend and my Gran etc, then when I came home on Wednesday I designated a couple more days to work on my spare room. I will either get back to the grind on Friday or Saturday, but either way I should be able to hit my volume goals for the month- so long as I'm consistent and don't take needless days off (which I haven't been doing so far this year, only taking off planned ones, for the most part).
GG, and back to the tables soon!
March 8, 2024 | 2:20 a.m.
Thanks mate, I am glad that you are enjoy it so far! It takes around forty five minutes for each post (but sometimes as long as an hour). So I'm happy when people enjoy my posts, as it makes it worthwhile :)
March 8, 2024 | 12:40 a.m.
Thanks mate, I really appreciate that :)
March 8, 2024 | 12:37 a.m.
Lausbub Thanks a lot mate, I really appreciate that :) Hope things are going well for you!
March 1, 2024 | 2:17 p.m.
Work or play?
In the past six months or so, I have been focusing more on having fun while playing poker. Of course there are times when this is not always possible, when you are running terrible and down a ton of money (though perhaps someone truly enlightened could still find joy in this), but for the most part, I want to enjoy each time I sit down at the tables.
Otherwise, what is the point? Are we simply accumulating money for no other reason than to add an extra zero to the end of our bank balance?
Also, there is the added benefit that when you are in a better mood, you are likely to play better poker in the process. Of course it would be disingenuous of me to pretend that I do not care about money (I do see the value in it) but I wish this to simply be one factor in my work, instead of the sole, driving factor behind it. Having a job that you enjoy is also just as important to me.
I was watching a couple of Alan Watt's (an old English Philosopher) videos on Youtube, one of which he was discussing the importance of play, and the other in which he was discussing the importance of death. I think they linked pretty well together, though.
Essentially what he was saying is that death is necessary, so that we can create space for new people (kids)- who have new ideas, a new enthusiasm for life and appreciate all the small things that we take for granted in our daily lives. Once we reach a certain point in our lives whereby we are only living to make money and plan for the future, then the vitality of our youth and of life in general has essentially left us. We are simply existing instead of living. We have ceased to play- like a young child or a dog does.
So in order to prolong our existence, we must find the joy in the small things in life- like washing the dishes. It's funny that he used this example, because I actually enjoy washing the dishes. All my close family have dishwashers, but I prefer to wash them by hand. I find it quite satisfying to take a dirty plate, bowl or pot, wipe the grease/residual food from it and then place it in the drying rack, ready to be used again. It's like you are wiping away yesterdays problems, and are starting today from a clean slate.
By outsourcing this to a dishwasher, then you stop being involved in this process. You simply see the end result and nothing else. You are not involved in the 'play' of the everyday, mundane task.
I guess this is similar to online shopping. We used to always have to get up, take a shower, put on some clothes, make our hair look presentable, walk (or drive) to the nearest shops, look around, interact with staff and then make a decision on what products we want to buy or not. Nowadays we can just lie in our beds, load up Amazon and in one click, have someone deliver a brown parcel with that product inside to our front door.
We have decided, as a society, to cut out the play in order to prioritise convenience. We order food to be delivered instead of going to a restaurant. We use dating apps instead of approaching a stranger in the street. We run on a treadmill instead of along a country lane. We play online poker instead of going to a casino (I'm sorry, but this is something I'm unwilling to change lol). We send a message instead of meeting up for a real conversation.
Where is the play in a message? We cannot see a facial expression, a smile, make eye contact etc. It's just some random words on a screen (I see the irony as I write this).
Anyways, of course I am susceptible of many of these things myself, too. However, I am trying to be more conscious in an effort to reduce them to as infrequently as possible. The internet has, overall, been an amazing invention that enables us to work from wherever to wish, make a good living doing a job we love. As online poker players, then at pretty much no other point in time (unless we were born in the future) could we do such a profession. So for that I am grateful.
However, what I want to be conscious of going forward, is to make sure I enjoy myself in the process. I was walking on the beach today with my parents and their dog. He loves swimming (sometimes I don't know if he would prefer to be a fish or a dog) and constantly goes in the water. I would throw stones in the water for him, then he would swim towards them after they plopped in the water. He found those stones literally zero times (there were a lot of waves and the water was relatively deep) but he would instantly stare me down until I threw in another stone, and continued to do this for over thirty minutes.
We wanted him to dry off a bit before he got in the car, so after turning around, we walked on a path, instead of on the beach. He kept staring at the water the whole way back, wishing he was back in.
Imo we could learn a lot from him. At that point in time, there is nothing else in the world he would rather be doing. All he wanted to do was to swim after a random stone that he was never going to retrieve. And as soon as he realised he wasn't finding that stone, then demanded I threw another so he could try all over again. He was playing.
Was I 'playing' poker when I got tilted after another bad beat? Was I 'playing' poker when I cursed my opponent for making a bad play and sucking out on me? No, I was not. I want to get to the point where I am playing poker, and I can be like Rocco (our dog) swimming after a stone he is never going to find. I want to accept that loss so gracefully, yet approach the next stone with just as much enthusiasm as the last. If that process leads me to moving up in stakes as a result, then great. But if it doesn't, and perhaps I end up taking some different career path in the future, then I wish to approach it from exactly the same perspective.
As poker players we may sometimes feel like we are very smart, and know much more than the average person. But in reality we are outshone by a dog, who has an intelligence of a toddler. Let's not forget that the next time someone makes a shitty play against us and gets rewarded. Maybe they were just playing poker, as we were playing poker.
Feb. 26, 2024 | 11:34 p.m.
Sound quality was very poor, hard to hear the commentary in a lot of spots.
I was laughing to myself when he probed 75% @42:41 on the turn board pair when he had just been using overbets in almost identical spots. Obviously looked down at his hand and didn't have trips, so sized down.
I sometimes play against regs who play in this way too- random custom sizings based on the hand that they are currently holding. Counter exploiting them is always very satisfying (even though exploitation is never my default approach to the game).
2 minute cold showers- the cheat code to feeling good
I just want to write a short post. I was considering writing about another, completely unrelated topic, but I want to be 100% sure before I write about that- so I will mull it over for a little while longer.
Anyways, I just wanted to give a suggestion to people if they want to feel in a better, more positive mood. I've done cold showers off and on for the past few years, but after hearing Wim Hof's suggestion of two minute cold showers (I was only doing thirty seconds to a minute) it has almost been life changing.
Today I went to the gym then sauna, before finishing with a two minute ice cold shower. Ever since then, I have been feeling in a mood of almost elation that I could only really remember in my drinking days when you hit the peak of your night and have that social buzz.
Granted, it's not a massive sample size as I've only been doing this for a couple weeks, but I would highly suggest that other people try it out too if you would like to feel in a better mood on a daily basis. I think when I get my bathroom done up, I will try to see if they can install something that makes my showers colder (like the one they have at the gym) so I can do it on a daily basis- as atm I am limited to 2x per week at the gym, and then a not so cold 'cold' shower at my home on the other days.
Anyways this post is short and sweet, but to me a two minute dose of daily discomfort is worth hours of daily bliss and feel good.
Clickity click
April 19, 2024 | 12:20 a.m.