Demondoink

Callum Ross

I do think though that assuming QQ and JJ would fold to the jam after
4betting is a touch ambitious

Yeah tbh I never even thought about these hands getting 4bet if I'm being honest. I'd be surprised if he ever 4bet JJ here, being in position, and QQ seems pretty wide too, but given what both players showed up with then perhaps he starts to expand his 4bet for value region too. I guess there's no real way to know this unless he 4bet QQ/JJ in a very similar spot. I do agree that if he ever 4bet QQ then I doubt he's folding. JJ seems pretty optimistic unless you are trying to induce this sort of play, but even then I'd probably just fold as even his bluffs like KQo are flipping and I'm dead vs most of the remaining range, bar AK.

In defense of my criticism of this play, as a coach, I feel like it
would be pretty wrong for me to advocate 5b jamming what I guess is
the literal bottom of our 3b sqz range

Yes that's a completely fair point. Don't get me wrong, this is a terrible play at equilibrium, but I'm pretty sure that Robl knows this is never a jam in a million years, hence why I decided to explore whether it could actually be okay or not. If a fish done this then I'd just put it down as a massive punt and take no notice.

RunItTw1ce True, but there's also a chance he has done the math away from the tables/ran some node locked sims to see how to counter exploit live regs who 4bet too often.

Either way I just wanted to explain why, even without a live read, that it could be a good play. Even if I would probably much prefer to jam a hand like A5s>KQo.

Also, I forgot to mention blocker effects. With KQo we are blocking both AK and KK, meaning that his KK combos drop to 3 and AK combos drop to 12. As people tend to 4bet bluff with Ax more than Kx, then actually we do quite a good job of blocking value and unblocking bluffs, especially if he tends to use more of the A9-A2s region as opposed to the AQ-ATo region.

@43:00

I don't like labelling Robl's play as a massive punt. In a spot like this, the IP player has to 4bet/call off so tight that it's very easy to overdo the 4bet bluffs. If this is the case then it simply becomes a question of math- can he effectively jam any two cards and make them profitable?

I played a spot recently against one of the most aggressive fish I've ever seen (pre flop at least) where he would 5bet insanely wide. As a result I cold 4bet/6bet jammed 200bb with AJo. Now if the fish snapped and had AA/KK then I would have looked dumb and if anyone ever seen the hand history then they would think I am a whale. However, I was almost certain that 6bet jamming this hand was printing so I went for it.

Also the big blinds you are risking are irrelevant. In a tournament you are told to open jam hands like A9o on the button with 20bb even when there is only 3-4bb of dead money in the middle. So if we say there is 4bb dead money, then that means we are risking 5x the pot to win the pot.

In this case, Robl is risking 205bb to win 72bb. So actually you are 'risking' much less than you are when you make a standard open jam with A9o off 20bb. You are only risking 2.85x the pot. Of course you could argue that it's different cos your equity when called in an mtt with A9o is probably around 50%, where as your equity when called with KQo in this cash game is probably 10-20%.

If we give IP a 4bet/call range of AA/KK/AK then KQo has 19% equity when called. So that means Robl will win $175,000 of the $919,000 pot (if called). Or 87bb.

As Robl is jamming almost 3x pot, then (without any equity) the jam needs to work 74% of the time to be profitable (72bb in the pot + 205bb jam is 277bb, 205/277=0.74 or 74%. Unless they are 4betting half the deck, then this is obviously never going to be profitable to jam. However, with the additional 87bb equity when called, now the jam only needs to work 56% of the time ((72bb+205bb+87bb) is 364bb. 205/364=0.56. Or 56%.

Assuming IP has 28 value combos then 28/44=0.63*100=63 overall combos. 63-28=35 bluff combos. So if IP 4bets 35> combos then we can profitably jam KQo here. AQ-ATo is already 36 combos, and we can assume they use a bunch of random suited Ax/Kx as bluffs too, and might not even 4bet/call off with AKo. So it becomes quite clear why Robl made a play like this once you factor in all of this.

Plus, it's worth mentioning he may have just had a live read and wasn't solely relying on math. Btw, if any of my math here is incorrect here then please point it out, cos I'm far from an expert mathematician so I might have been wrong at some point.

Weddings and poker

I had not been to a wedding in around eight or nine years, before last weekend. Me and my friends were young guys back then, in our early twenties and having no real idea what kind of life would unfold before us in the coming years. I was chosen by my friend to be his best man, an honour that means I would have to organise the stag do, as well as performing a speech at his wedding- amongst other things. I would use alcohol to help me perform both of these tasks to a (decent) level.

Thankfully the speech went well and it was a good ceremony, but I would never see that 'best friend' again as he would move away and get on with his new life.

However, I do owe him a lot as he would be the guy who introduced me to poker. One day we were sitting at his Grans house (it was basically vacated so he lived there) and he pulled out a pack of cards and said we should 'play poker'. This was shortly after the conclusion of high school, when I was seventeen and not yet old enough to grace a casino.

I knew literally nothing about the game, and so he taught me some of the basic concepts such as hand strength and what hand beats what hand etc. Once me and my friends were all eighteen (I would be the last to turn eighteen) we started to go to the casino, and the rest is history. Ironically, I was probably the worst out of all of us in the beginning. My two best friends were more aggressive players, and I was a bit more passive (soon that would be eradicated from my game forever). However, I was able to learn and adapt my game over time, where as they would be stuck in the same gear all of the time and never shift out of this aggressive default mode.

Aggression is great in poker, but it has to be tempered with passivity. We have to give up sometimes, whether that be to control our frequencies a little, to exploit a calling station/fish, or to simply prove that we are a player capable of playing in several different ways. We do not want to be predictable at the poker table. Unpredictability will both confuse our opponents, whilst simultaneously keeping them on their toes whenever we enter a pot against them.

Quickly I would figure out when my friend would decide (seemingly before the flop) that it was time to barrel off three streets and either go home, or pick up a healthy pot at some point with the fold equity that multiple bets should bring. Even though there was no such thing as node locking and we didn't county combo's, it just seemed intuitive that a guy would likely be overdoing his bluffing frequencies when (essentially) betting blind post flop across multiple streets.

So perhaps, after high school concluded, it was my friends job to introduce me to poker, and it was my job to help him step in to the next stage of his life as a married man. He actually met his wife to be on a night out that we had together. Either way I will forever be grateful for our friendship and for him introducing me to this great game.

I was invited to another wedding at the weekend, which would be my first since the aforementioned wedding. A lot had changed in this period for myself. I had stopped drinking (though thankfully I had no speeches to perform this time), poker had ceased to become such a volatile income, and had instead become a relatively consistent one. I had travelled a lot, moved around cities and eventually bought a place of my own. I had started to prioritise both my mental and physical health, by doing things such as daily meditation and forging a pretty consistent workout/exercise routine.

Of course there were some downsides too, some things were better eight/nine years ago than they are now, but this is to be expected. Our lives are not a linear progression, but instead consist of peaks and valleys.

Overall it was a very good day out and nice to catch up with several people who I had not seen in years. We even got in a little Scottish country dancing, which was fun! I wouldn't say I am a massive wedding fan tbh, but the thing that I do like about them is that they can bring together people that would, almost certainly, never be brought together through any other circumstances. It's crazy the amount of time, effort and planning that go in to weddings, only to have them concluded over the span of less than half a day. I guess that ephemeral nature is not only applicable to weddings, but also to life. We think that weeks are slow, months are slower and years take an age, but in reality, weeks and months pass by within the blink of an eye, and years can fly by almost as quickly!

It may only seem like yesterday when our friend was teaching us the rules of poker, but in reality over a decade has passed since then.

Ironically I have another wedding this coming weekend. The idiom of London buses really is true! Of course there is something to be said about the fact that I am thirty, so this is a fairly common age where people will ger married etc, but either way it's still funny not to have attended one in so long and then have two in the space of a week.

I want to find a way of slowing life down, so that another decade doesn't fly by. Whether that be spending less time on technology, or getting up earlier, or shifting career path, or focusing more on relationships, or travelling more, or switching back to grinding live poker (like in my teenage years), I am not sure.

Either way, these weddings will simultaneously wrap up one chapter in our friends lives, whilst also beginning a new, exciting chapter for them. So even if we struggle to fully get on board with the clamour of seeing the brides wedding dress, or for catching the flowers as they are tossed in to the crowd, at the very least we can appreciate the beauty in life whereby one specific day is bookmarked forever in our friends lives. The worst thing we can do is to have every day meld in to one another, without ever being able to identify one day being any different to the last.

July 22nd 2024 may have just been another day for me, when I travelled home after a long and busy weekend, but July 20th 2024 will be a day forever engrained in to my friends memory, and by proxy, in to mine as well.

Tomorrow I will get back on to the grind. GG.

Lausbub Haha cheers mate, I really appreciate that! Maybe the other post was my best one up to that point, so I guess it's good to continue to improve and be able to outdo my old posts :P

Tbh I was a little nervous about writing about this subject, but I try to be honest in this blog and these thoughts were on my mind, so I wrote about it regardless. I guess it's quite a vulnerable admission to make. Either way I am glad that people got some benefit from my post and enjoyed it :)

I used to play football a lot as a kid, but wouldn't really want to get back in to playing for an actual team nowadays, just cos I feel like it can get a little bit too dirty/aggressive/serious at amatuer level. However, I would be open to playing five a side or seven a side again, as it's competitive but not overly serious. I prefer to remain injury free as much as possible so that I can continue to do my other sports too.

How about you, what sports are you in to?

Are you interested in a subject and go to uni?

That's actually a great question. At my yoga class tonight it suddenly dawned on me halfway through the class. I was thinking- wouldn't it be cool to go back to Uni and get a degree in something like Psychology, and that way I could move to Glasgow for the duration of my degree (going to Rangers games, being closer to friends/family etc) cos there isn't a Uni here in Inverness- well there is but it's more like a college tbh.

However, that wouldn't be until September 2025 at the earliest, as;
1- I wanna play poker full time for the remainder of the year.
2- I wanna redecorate and fix up my house.
3- I wanna stay in Inverness for a couple years at least so that I can fully experience living here.

I'm not saying I'm definitely doing this, but it seems like a decent idea to me. I think long term that living in Inverness/up in the Highlands is a good idea, but I've noticed that the average age of people up here is higher- as more people tend to move up here to retire/have families, and younger people tend to move away to go to bigger cities and to Uni etc. I'm not quite at that stage of life yet, so perhaps it would be best to go back to a big city and go to Uni etc.

Anyways this is just an idea. Like I said, I will be staying here for at least another year, but just because I bought a house here doesn't mean I need to stay put here. It will be easy to rent out- whether that be as a holiday home/airbnb (there are tons of tourists in Inverness) or just as a general rental. Buying a house, at least for me, is more of a mid-long term investment- as opposed to a place that I will stay in for the next 30+ years.

You were at Uni recently right? Did you enjoy your time there? Maybe I am misremembering what you told me, but I thought you said you were at Uni not long ago.

Daniel Clemente Hey man, thanks for the kind comment! I have time to reply now haha :)

Ah that's sick I never realised you were Scottish too! There aren't many of us kicking around on these RIO forums haha. Though there are actually some other really good high stakes cash regs from Scotland like DeanoSupremo and BigBlindBets. Gazzy seems to have improved a lot in the past year or so too. So in that sense, we probably punch above our weight haha.

I completely agree with your comment about those other similarly 'small' football nations continuously doing well, where as whenever we qualify for a major finals it's a miracle. Hopefully, after qualifying for two of the past three tournaments, it can now become the norm, and then we can go on to the next level and actually qualify out of a group. Hungary were very mediocre tbh, and we could have easily won that game. The Armstrong challenge seemed like a stone wall penalty, and I thought that in the stadium too when I seen that challenge come in.

I feel like the problem is Clarke though. He is very good at being the under dog- whether that be getting Killie up to third place in the SPL, or getting Scotland to qualify for a first major finals in 23 years. However, can he create a team that expects to win and go to the next level? I doubt that. There is no plan B from the turgid football of 5-4-1. Sure, it has worked well in the past, but teams figure you out and adjust vs your tactics and formations. So at a certain point he needs to see it no longer works for us, and create a new system/formation/style of football. Playing without wingers, in todays game, is extremely questionable. Having no pace means teams can press you high and have zero fear about you counter attacking- which is pretty much exactly what Germany done against us. Then you look at Spain in the final, and how they literally won the game cos their two wingers created so much, and combined together for the first goal- one getting the goal and the other the assist.

Anyways we will see what happens in the upcoming Nations League matches. Hopefully he tries something new cos otherwise it'll be the exact same results, were we to qualify for the WC in two years time.

Glad to hear you've gotten your smarphone habits under control. I
think your point regarding how smartphones are literally designed to
grab our attention in the maximum way possible, that billions of
dollars go into this is an important consideration. Often we can feel
bad that we are personally failing if we get lost in a smartphone
doomscrolling rabbit hole.

Yes I think those are some great points. I think it's very important that we take accountability in our lives, but sometimes we just have to accept that- hey I'm a human, and I am able to be manipulated in certain ways. Phones are the ultimate manipulation tool, cos it's not as if we have instant negative (or slightly slower) feedback, that we may get from having other negative habits. For example if we drink alcohol, the next day we get instant negative feedback in the shape of a hangover. If we eat unhealthily, we might feel bad in the aftermath of a pizza, but if we don't, we will see slower, negative feedback when we look in the mirror after six months of eating crap and see we have put on two stone.

However, with phones, we can scroll mindlessly for years, but not really see any negative feedback. We are not getting a hangover and throwing up down the toilet, and we are not putting on several stone and staring at ourselves in the mirror in disgust. Perhaps we may feel slightly down/depressed, or that we don't have time to do certain things (due to our excessive phone use) but other than that, there is no clear negative side effects of phone usage. But in reality, we know there are a ton of them.

That's a good idea about the safe, I will look in to that- thanks for sharing! I have always thought it would be a cool idea to have a little box in your hallway for guests to put their phones in whenever they visited you- so that you were 'forced' to actually talk instead of someone just drifting off and using their phone or whatever.

I often think that when I'm established at high stakes, I will make a
big effort to take willpower out of the equation: order meal prep or
batch cook to ensure that I don't have to think about what to eat and
always have a healthy option, book personal trainers so that I don't
have to force myself to go to the gym at varying schedules, book
coachings/study sessions with other pros so I don't miss them and have
better focus, etc. All of these things add up over time, and repay the
initial cost imo.

That sounds like a good idea. Personally I really like cooking, so I wouldn't want to outsource that to someone else. I would maybe get a PT at some point, at the very least to teach me to deadlift (I never deadlift cos I feel like my form isn't good), but it would probably be fun to have your own PT pushing you. I don't mind doing workouts alone though. However, I got to yoga classes, so perhaps you could class this as having a 'PT' cos I could easily just go stretches at home by myself, or by watching a random yoga video on Youtube. But by going to classes, the teacher is able to correct your form etc, which is essentially what a PT would be doing. I got golf lessons a couple years ago, and would definitely get more this year- if I actually liked the pro at my golf club (which I don't haha). Today he was very rude to me for no reason, so that excludes me from ever taking lessons from him. Coaching is a good idea, and probably something that I should have done at some point. However, I have gotten some 'coaching' this year in terms of from a stats/data perspective, cos that's not my strong suit. Having a mental game coach is also something I'd be open to getting in the future. I feel like from a theoretical perspective, that I wouldn't get coaching though as I like my study process and still feel like I can improve a ton doing so by myself.

So yes I agree with you, except about the cooking :D

Going to use your inspiration to get back into it and hit the gym
today after my first session.

Nice one mate, great to hear! I was struggling with this just a couple of months ago, but now I am bitten by the exercise bug and I'm doing something almost every day. For example this week- on Monday I went to yoga, Tuesday to the gym/sauna etc, Wednesday to golf then yoga (first time this year prob doing 2x forms of exercise in a day) and tomorrow I'll be going to the gym before heading back to my parents. Then 1x more workout before the end of the week (leg day) and I think I'm playing golf again on Sunday with my friend. So hopefully the same happens to you too. It's easier exercising in the Summer too, when you can walk to the gym or whatever in shorts and a t shirt.

That second hand is wild. WP. Don't understand his flop donk much at
all tbh.

He's just some random fish, so I guess if you have an overpair on a dry board and you're a fish, then donking always seems reasonable haha. The river donk was the very questionable play imo haha. Either way, I'm not complaining :P

Cheers mate, GL to you too!

Paul Gough Yeah Bale seemed to be injured a lot, at least for Madrid, but always seemed to play for Wales- or at least in games that he was badly needed in.

I think that for countries like each of ours, you need your most talented players (because we will probably only have a couple) to be in forward areas. So in that sense Wales were blessed because your best players were a wide forward (Bale), and a creative midfielder (Ramsey). Sure there were other good players in that team like Ashley Williams at centre back, Joe Allen in midfield etc, but ultimately the difference makers are in forward areas.

However, for Scotland our best players are left backs (Robbo and Tierney) and in central midfield- where we have McGinn, McTominay, Gilmour, Ferguson, McGregor etc. We don't have any good strikers and almost no wingers in the squad. Which means we have to play a 5-4-1 and shoe horn in as many central midfielders and left backs in to that team as possible, simply because they are our best players.

So I would say that there wasn't a huge difference in terms of quality between peak Wales and current Scotland (you had Bale/Ramsey, we have Robbo/McGinn) but the key difference is that your best players score goals and ours don't play in those forward positions, even though McGinn does score quite a lot for a central midfielder tbf.

Haha nice one, at least you managed to run that $600 up to a healthy profit! The weird thing with live poker is that you have to factor in flights, accommodation etc to figure out if the trip is even worth making. Where as when we are grinding online then essentially the only 'expense' we have is electricity, cos we already have an internet connection, laptop etc.

$1/3/10 sounds like fun though. At EPT Barcelona last year I played in some $5/10 games, and the highest I played was in a $10/20 game. I seen a bunch of mediocre regs on $50/100 games, but I wasn't that comfortable with live yet and also its very awkward taking out that amount of money and then having to take it back to the UK with you. Are you able to put Dollars/Euros back in to your bank accounts when it's time for you to go home? Or you have to take the cash back with you? Cos I'm never sure what to do with it, were I to have a bunch of cash left over in a foreign currency.

Haha yeah man, should be fun :) GL.

Starting from nothing

In poker most of us started with nothing. Sure, there are the people who were gifted $10k by a relative, decided to hop in to poker and managed to build a career out of it. Or the people with rich parents, who could afford to go busto several times and get bailed out by their parents each and every time. Then there were the guys, like most of us, who started off with freerolls and the micro stakes, and slowly progressed from there. We remain humble because we know what it was like when $100 in your poker account felt like the world.

I recall managing to satellite in to the Sunday Storm from a freeroll, then I proceeded to go relatively deep in it and cash for $35 or so. I sat at the top of the stairs in my parents house on my laptop, as I was finally knocked out of the tournament. A refresh of my cashier promptly informed me that I was now the proud owner of 35 American Dollars- not bad for an evenings work!

We all remember hearing the stories of 'no home Jerome' (aka Phil Ivey) back in the day. For some reason there is a certain allure about hearing the initial struggles of someone, be that a poker player, a professional athlete, an actor etc who had their struggles in the beginning but managed to come out on top in the end. Perhaps it is because we can relate to those struggles, while we aim to mimic their eventual successes.

Four homes Jerome just doesn't have the same ring to it.

What I have noticed in my own life is that it is easy to become too fixated on one aspect of your life, and end up overlooking the others. For example, let's say we are striving to become the best poker player in the world.

Well, then we need to work harder than almost every other poker player. We need to study daily, and do so efficiently. We need to prepare better for every session than our opponents. We need to make sure we play our A game each and every time we sit down at the tables. Our willingness to both embrace and accept variance is a necessity. We have to cut out bad habits that are inhibiting our poker game, and we have to cultivate better, more productive habits.

Poker has transcended being a game, and is now our life.

However, this also has it's downsides. Do we now have time to exercise? Do we have time to travel and see new places? Do we have time to spend with our friends and family? Do we have time to start new hobbies and have new experiences?

Documentaries like 'The Last Dance' may inspire us, at least temporarily, to hunker down, put in the hours in the solver and on the tables, and meditate pre and post session. But is this kind of lifestyle sustainable for the long term? We hear about how important balance in poker is off the tables, but is 'balance' just another term for mediocrity? Michael Jordan certainly didn't become the best basketball player in the world by living a 'balanced' life!

This is the dilemma that I have been faced with, since I moved to Inverness at the end of September last year. When I moved up here I knew literally nobody. I had no friends and no family within two hours of me. I also knew nobody from poker that lived in this area. When I was in Budapest for two months in 2022, I had a good poker friend who lived there, and also knew of a couple of other people (from RIO) who were going to be over there too. So even though I spent plenty of time alone while being over there, I also spent time with poker friends, and new poker friends that I made while on that trip.

When I first moved out of my parents house and up to Aberdeen, I moved in with one of my long term friends from school and in to his student accommodation. When I next moved to Edinburgh, I moved in with a poker friend (that I met through RIO). Then afterwards I moved in to a flat in Edinburgh with my best friend.

Having grown up in a family with my parents, two brothers and golden retriever, I never really spent much time alone. There would always be friends coming and going in the house, and I would hang out with both my brothers friends, as well as my own ones.

However, time moves on. We all moved out and went our own ways.

Poker is a game that I love, and probably will do so for the rest of my life. There are many positive aspects of playing the game, however, it's also important to acknowledge the negatives. For me, the main downside (by far) is the lack of socialness. Despite being an introvert, I like talking to people and hanging out with people. I definitely have a certain social battery that, when drained, needs to be recharged, but I am not someone who is happy to walk around all day without talking to one person.

Throughout my life I have always been surrounded by people. In the past five or so years that may just be one or two people for most of the time, and then more people at the weekends or when we are going on hikes or whatever. However, there were always people around who were willing to hang out, go on hikes, go to the gym, cook a meal together or kick a ball around in the park.

In the past couple years, however, this has dwindled away. My friends are getting married, having kids and are suddenly much less available. You go from seeing them every day to once a month. You go from seeing them a couple times a week to a couple times a year. In the past it didn't matter if you spent all day grinding in the house alone, because your brothers or your friends would come home and you could hang out with them. It didn't matter if you spent Monday-Friday in grind mode, cos you knew your friends were heading out this weekend and you could use your (fully charged) social battery over the course of those two days.

Poker was the perfect job for a guy in his teens and in his twenties, but is it the perfect job for a guy in his thirties and beyond?

This is the dilemma that I am now wrestling with. I wouldn't change one thing about what I have done in poker for the past 10+ years (other than, perhaps, be more aggressive when shot taking $5k+). However, is this a suitable lifestyle and occupation for the next ten years? My days of having roommates are over. I'll probably get a girlfriend at some point, but other than that, you are working in your house alone.

I knew this day would come. I always accepted that the one main flaw in terms of grinding online poker was the lack of being around other people and the lack of social interactions. I have met tons of cool people in poker, but almost everyone lives in a different country and thus you almost never see any of them. I have lots of virtual poker friends and acquaintances, but how many of them can you go and watch the football at the pub with? Or play a round of golf with? Where as when you are working in an office, then everybody is in the same area and thus it's easy to physically spend time together and go for a coffee or a pint or whatever.

Anyways, I am 100% grinding full time for the remainder of the year, and then I will reassess from there. Next year I might switch to grinding online part time, or I might start grinding more live poker- perhaps going to Vegas or Texas for a couple months at a time, then coming back to Scotland and taking a couple months off to just travel around and do my own thing. I'm not sure. Maybe I just need a complete break from the game and have to focus 100% on my social life, perhaps for six months or a year. Who knows.

However, what I do know for certain is that now is the time to make a change. Online poker will remain my career priority for the remainder of the year, at the very least, but now I have to start prioritising my social life. I can't rely on hanging out with my brothers. I can't rely on a flat mate or a close friend to spend weeknights with. I can't rely on a couple of friends, or a group of friends to hang out with on weekends. They now have other priorities- be that their kids, their marriage or their careers. They now live hours away, or several plane journeys away.

When I was looking at places to live, Glasgow was my first priority. It was close to my brother, close to my Gran, and close to one of my best friends. My other best friend works there fairly often, too. This was the relatively safe option, at least from a social standpoint. Ultimately, however, I kept getting priced out of buying a home, so Inverness was next on the list- a lot more affordable, but up North and not close to anyone that I knew.

Maybe I am just a masochist, but I think that part of the reason that I wanted to move here was to start afresh- to rely on nobody but myself. In poker coaching I stress the importance of having solid foundations to your game. You shouldn't be studying stupid, obscure spots in poker if you are massively under bluffing almost every line, or if you don't know how to bluff catch, or you don't understand the importance of blockers and unblockers. I am taking the exact same approach with redecorating my house. First I get a new boiler, new radiators, new fuse board, electrics tested etc before I even think about painting or about sanding the floor. It doesn't matter how nice your home looks if you have a thirty year old boiler that stops working in the middle of Winter (which happened in January).

Ultimately, while I always had friends from high school, from my hometown and from poker, I never really put any effort in to meeting people 'in the real world'. In poker it's kind of easy because there is so much to talk about to a fellow poker pro or even a more casual poker enthusiast. So, while I have improved and practiced my social skills over the past five years since quitting drinking, I still need to work on my social foundations so that I can become better at being around people more often and making more new friends in my new area.

If you have a group of friends from your hometown you always hang around with, or a girlfriend or wife who you spend most of your free time with, then you are probably in the exact same scenario- you are screwed if you either move away or if you split up with your partner. There are so many books about how not to procrastinate, how to be more productive, how to learn a new language, how to be more present and mindful- but very few on how to make new friends, especially as you get older. Steven Bartlett 'Diary of a CEO' podcaster, says this is one of his most frequent questions from young men- 'how do I make friends'?

In the era of digital communication, we have forgotten how to socialise and make new connections. We spend more and more time indoors and in front of screens, and less and less time outdoors, face to face with fellow human beings.

So, I am essentially starting from nothing. I may not have gone busto at poker, but I have moved to an area where I know nobody and where I need to get out of my comfort zone, spend more time around people in new settings and make new friends- and who knows, maybe even meet a nice girl along the way!

I gotta admit, on Saturday I kind of felt at a bit of a low point. I never get depressed or anything, but I just felt low. I was like- I am living in this great city, it's the Summer and I'm just sitting around at home by myself on a Saturday night. Then I made a decision, I'm not going to be a victim, I am going to take ownership and create my own destiny. In the words of Jocko Willink- I will take Extreme Ownership over my life, and especially of my social life.

I have done pretty well at poker, and got to a pretty high standard. My next challenge is trying to achieve that same standard in my social life, in a new area where I knew nobody prior to moving. I don't find talking to people a problem, but I need to be around people more often, and be around the same people enough times so that we can create some sort of connection(s). So I will do more exercise classes, continue with yoga, start volunteering again, get out to coffee shops during the day etc and continue to chat to my neighbours as I do the gardening (nobody else in my flat block is willing to do any of it haha).

I am happy with my poker game, I am happy with my health and nutrition, but I can definitely work on my social life. That is my next target. It's time to get out of the comfort zone, meet cool people and have new experiences.

We started off in poker with nothing. We played the freerolls, before progressing on to the micros and beyond. We dedicated our lives to this great game, and we reaped the benefits of that. Now it's time to apply this same process to other areas that we are lacking in- be that socially, health/fitness wise etc.

I may be grinding the social freerolls for now, but I will arrive at high stakes eventually :)

GG.

People call you here

Cos of what you do here

ZaiahJJ Exactly. Most of the battle is just getting to the gym in the first place, the workout is the easy bit. It's often easier to make excuses on why we shouldn't go today, instead of putting on our shoes and heading out the door.

Hey man, good luck in your poker journey!

what I realized is, if you play more than 100,000 hands a month,
you'll be able to do almost nothing other than related to the poker.

I think this is one of the biggest leaks for lower stakes players- they prioritise volume too much. Of course you need to build up a roll to begin with, so that you can withstand variance, pay bills etc, but if you have 2x the WR then you can play 50% of the volume. So imo it's just as important to study than it is to grind.

Also, the longer the hours you play, the lower your WR will become (especially towards the end of a session). Your WR isn't static, it fluctuates based on tiredness, fatigue, mood, how your session is going etc. So if your database WR says 3bb/100, well maybe you are winning at 4/5bb/100 for the first four hours of your session and 1-2bb/100 for the last four, or perhaps you aren't even winning on the last hour of your session.

Having a social life is important in life, as is being healthy. You keep referencing how you want to start exercising regularly but don't, this is simply procrastination. You just need to join a gym (or join a running club, whatever exercise you want to do) and decide what days you will go on per week. I read in a book about planning your social/health etc activities FIRST and then filling in your work life around them- not the other way around, which is what most people do. They plan out their work week and then are shocked when they have no willpower to go to the gym after grinding for eight hours and studying for two hours.

However, if you have told yourself- I will exercise Monday, Wednesday and Friday and I will see my friend on Saturday, then those events are set in stone, meaning you will now play poker/study around them. So perhaps that means on Monday you wake up, study and then go to the gym and play poker afterwards. Maybe you can only play six hours because you spent two hours of time heading to the gym and commuting there and back. Then on Saturday perhaps you take it as a day off, or get in some study/grinding in the afternoon before meeting your friend in the evening.

What I'm trying to say is that you have to make your health and social life a priority, instead of an afterthought. Ultimately we earn money (in our case from poker) so that we can enjoy our lives. Sitting indoors all day, not exercising and never seeing your friends isn't exactly the definition of a fulfilling life.

Ever since I read the suggestion to plan social events, exercise etc first, and fit your work in around them, it has made a massive difference. For example I have two weddings this month, both marked on my calendar, so now I have to figure out when to grind around those events. Obviously weddings are big events, so they are easy to justify taking a day off poker, but so should be seeing your friends, or exercising and taking care of your health.

I didn't post it on my blog, but I decided to get rid of two bad
habits myself during April.

1-Listening music during the session

2-check the graph frequently during the session

I wouldn't say either of these are a bad habit, I would say neglecting your social life and health are much bigger issues than listening to music while you grind or checking your results. Fwiw I do both, but I make sure to listen to music that doesn't have lyrics (or if they do, then they have to be very relaxing playlists). I check my graph throughout the session too. Some people swear by not checking their results, but imo it's better if we can see our results and continue to play well, than to play well but not check our results. The first scenario means that, despite knowing we are losing a bunch, we can still play our A game. The second means that we can only play our A game when we pretend like we don't know we are losing.

Of course you could say 'results don't matter' but in reality they do. We want to constantly review hands, check problem areas in our game (perhaps through database filters) so that we can improve. Closing our eyes during an all in isn't a good way to develop mental resilience. We want to see our AA losing against KK and continue to play well after that suckout. Cos what happens when we play live and we lose several all ins and have to keep rebuying physical chips? Then we KNOW we have lost x number of buy ins, but online we have pretended like this has never happened, so it's likely we don't have any mental resilience towards losses and thus we (probably) play worse in the live game as a result.

So personally I would rephrase these 'bad habits' as-

1. Not exercising
2. Not socialising

Fwiw I have to continue to improve the second option as well, as I don't know many people in my new city. So it's also something that I have to consciously work on in the coming months! I have a good exercise routine, though.

Good luck for the rest of the year.

Offline

I finished reading the book 'offline' on the weekend. Having done the one week with no phone challenge earlier this year (or more accurately, using it for 30 mins< per day) I realised that this was becoming an issue for me. I would often wake up, start playing chess as part of my 'productive' morning routine (which also involved a meditation) and still be lying in my bed hours later, deeply engrossed in a chess binge.

So when my annual subscription of chess.com was up, I decided not to renew it. Sometimes we have the discipline to cut out things with sheer will power alone. Sometimes we can look at a burger in the fridge, but pick up the healthier option sitting next to it instead. However, sometimes we lack this mental discipline, thus meaning that our only option is to take away the temptation. That means, in this instance, not buying burgers at the supermarket so that you don't have that temptation when raiding the fridge for food in the evening. Or, in my case, cancelling my chess subscription and deleting the app off my phone.

You can put a pint of beer or a joint in front of me and I will turn up my nose, but put down a smartphone with chess.com installed and you likely won't see me for a while.

This issue is not only related to chess, but also to smartphones in general. They are designed in such a way, as are the apps we frequently use like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube etc, to become addictive to the point where we are subconsciously reaching for our phones without us even realising. The phone buzzes and we see who sent us a message. We are standing in line at the supermarket and we check the news as we wait. We are out for a walk and we phone a friend or a family member for a catch up. Perhaps we are simply maximising our time. We weren't doing anything else in the queue, so why not catch up with the news? We were just on a walk by ourselves, with our dog, so why not phone our friend who we've not spoken to for a month?

We can always rationalise reasons to use our phones, and these companies know this. Our phones used to be for phoning (or perhaps texting), but nowadays we almost never use them for those functions. We use them for taking pictures, for posting on social media, for checking the news, for taking notes, for watching videos, for using maps, for ordering off Amazon, for dating. It's like our entire lives are wrapped within this small, handheld device.

The authors of offline talk about some of the ways in which we are manipulated by these giant tech companies, about how they use addictive technology based off of slot machines in order to keep our attention on our phones for as much of the day as possible. Things such as the 'infinite scroll' mean that we will never, ever run out of videos, photos or products to scroll through. We are the product, not the consumer, and our time and focus is an extremely valuable commodity. Cookies and data sharing are used in order to tailor web searches for us so that we see advertisements that suit our wants and needs. Algorithms know us better than our familes do, so we keep seeing things we like, and hearing things that reinforce our opinions and enhance the echo chambers that we live within.

One good point that the authors made was that by living within this echo chamber (usually we would discuss these types of things, for example politics, with other people in real life- meaning we would be fairly centrist and neutral as a result of hearing a variety of different opinions) we are becoming more polarised. The left hates the right and the right hates the left. Then we are suggested another video to further reinforce our polar beliefs.

Essentially smartphones, and technology in general, has been used to hack the subconscious parts of our brains- meaning that we kind of just auto pilot on to our phones, or towards the TV or computer without thinking too much about why we are actually picking up that phone, or turning on the TV etc.

However, like the chess dilemma, I also find myself becoming engrossed with my phone too often and being unable to fully control my subconscious urges to pick it up and see what's going on in the world. Which is why I was left with no option than to remove the stimulus.

Now, I think I am much better than the average person at staying off my phone- at least in terms of when I am out with friends/family, when I am walking around, when I am at the gym or at a sporting event etc. However, when I am lying around at home then I often find myself picking up my phone too often and not being present in my life enough of the time. Hours can easily slip by and you have nothing to show for it.

So what I've started to do is to leave my phone at home when I head off to the gym. Typically this means I spend around 3 hours off of all technology- as it takes 30-35 mins to walk each way to the gym, and around 45-50 mins of workout and around the same amount of time in the sauna/steam room etc area. Sometimes I even take a book with me and read in the spa area, after I am done with my 15 mins in the sauna. Reading is probably my favourite hobby atm. Today, for example, I read 60 pages of a book about Edward Snowden (it's very interesting so far). I usually don't read that many pages in a day, but sometimes I enjoy it so much that I do. I can easily spend hours watching TV or Youtube etc, so why not spend an hour reading a book instead?

I actually ended up exercising for ten days in a row. After returning from Germany on the Wednesday, I got back to the gym on the Friday, played golf on the Saturday and then went to the gym again on the Sunday. On Sunday I decided I was switching to a push/pull/legs weekly split, instead of an upper/lower one, so that meant going to the gym on Monday/Wednesday and Friday the following week. In between, on Tuesday/Thursday, I went to yoga classes, and then on Saturday and Sunday I played golf.

I think that exercising once per day is very reasonable, though I'm not saying that I will do so going forward. I think that 5x per week is the minimum, but 7x per week is attainable if you have a good balance of different sports to do. Yoga is obviously quite restorative instead of intense. Golf is good in terms of getting off technology for 3-4 hours, getting outside and getting some Vitamin D, and of course the gym is good for building muscle and maintaining a healthy body. However, I would quickly burn out if I went to the gym 7x per week, or if I tried to run 7x per week or something stupid.

I played poker four times last week too, albeit they were short sessions- apart from on Sunday. I had to sleep on the sofa over the weekend, as my brothers were up to visit, so I think that my sleep wasn't the best. Coupled with the fact that I had to get up at 7am on Sunday morning so that we made our 8am tee time. Despite the afternoon nap, I was clearly not mentally sharp and not rested enough, and probably played my worst session of the year. Granted, I also ran terrible, but I made so many sloppy, avoidable mistakes throughout the session. I don't mind losing money, it happens in poker, but I hate playing crap and gifting money to other players.

So today (Monday) I decided to take a day off the exercise and rest- I had planned to take Sunday as my rest day, before we decided to play golf again. However, that didn't mean time off poker. I locked myself in my study and got in 2+ hours of study on SRP, a spot which I've been neglecting recently. Then, later on in the evening, I even got in a short 1.5 hours session- where I managed to win a couple buy ins. It felt good after yesterdays shit show, and more importantly I played much better and with a much clearer thought process and game plan.

Tomorrow I will get back to the gym and do a push workout. I'm not sure if I'll play poker or not, I'll just see if I'm in the mood to grind and if I have time to do so.

GG.

Winning a stack at $2k

I was legit concerned about him having AA otr- obv still snapping though

Sam Crowe Hey man, apologies about the slow reply. Your comments take a little more time to reply to than the average one haha :P

Yeah that's true. Yoga is pretty expensive, though I remember when I was in Budapest I managed to get like four classes for £10 or something crazy haha. So I guess it just depends on where you live. Actually those classes in Budapest were my favourite ones I've done so far. I remember after one particular class I experienced an almost euphoric high afterwards. I like the classes in Inverness, but I do not have the same post class feelings that I got while in Budapest. I actually became friends with that yoga teacher too. So perhaps it takes that 'friendship' connection in order to truly experience the highs that yoga has to offer. It's a different experience when you are getting taught by a teacher that you are indifferent towards.

That sounds interesting about the type(s) of yoga you do. Have you ever thought about becoming a part time teacher or something? I get the impression that you would be good at it, and it would enable you to learn even more about the different practices etc. I've been thinking about getting a part time job too. I don't think it's very healthy to work indoors by yourself, we are social creatures and should be around people quite a lot of the time. Several psychologists etc also stress the importance on health and longevity of having friends and close relationships. Either that or I'll get back in to volunteering, which is probably more likely.

Yeah it's funny cos my brothers were over at the weekend and we played golf twice. I'm a late riser, but I even forced myself to get up at 7am on Sunday so we could squeeze in a second round before they left. It's a good sport, but I think one that is much more enjoyable when you are playing with friends/family. Where as the gym, imo, isn't any better or more enjoyable when you are with other people. If anything it distracts me and I take too long in between sets.

Whatever we pursue in yoga, it is ancient knowledge, from a different
society and cultures than ours. Cultures that were simpler, much more
patient, they measured time in generations. Cultures that have more
nuanced relationships with crafts and people, than to design
everything around achievement. There is great wisdom to learn from and
nicely balances this terrible relationship with immediacy and
achievement our culture/generation has.

Great points! Yes I think that we have become far too integrated with technology etc, and too disconnected from people and to nature. We spend the weekends in doors watching TV instead of hiking, or running, or camping or whatever. We work from home instead of on a farm. Life has improved in many ways with the advances in technology, medicine etc, but essentially us humans are simple creatures- we need good relationships, sunshine, good food and exercise in order to thrive and be happy in life. However, society and conditioning dictates that, instead of prioritising these things, we should chase money, social media followings, hookups and become engrossed within the latest technology- whether that be virtual reality or simply the new iPhone.

So we have to, essentially, simplify our lives again in order to achieve happiness and fulfillment on a more consistent basis- instead of on a sporadic basis when we get a new Tinder match or a promotion at work. Which is why you see, as you alluded to, so many Europeans etc going to India and (I assume) trying to 'find themselves' by practicing yoga whilst over there. At a certain point we realise that technology, whilst it can be a useful tool, will never ever provide us with happiness- except on a very fleeting and surface level basis.

Cool thanks, I will check out that video you sent! Sometimes when I watch videos (on YT) with voiceovers, a cool background and nice music it kind of transports me to some place else, where I feel alive and present. I love finding a playlist, or a short video that does this. Some of the AI generated images are very cool and match the emotions of the playlist very well. So I think that technology, in this sense, can be a positive. It's just that we are addicted to so much other crap haha. For example there are playlists/mixes that incorporate Alan Watts snippets in to their music, which works very well imo.

Yes that's a good point about the reflexes, I never thought about that actually! I used to be a good goalkeeper as a youth, and was quite good at ping pong whenever we played it on holiday etc. It's a weird 'brag', but I think that one of my strongest things is my reflexes, even though I never really use them. For example, whenever things fall out the cupboard I catch them before they hit the ground/work top 90%+ of the time. I've never really looked in to seeing if this could be translated in to some sort of useful skill though, other than avoiding smashing jars falling out of cupboards haha. It's pretty fun whenever I catch something falling though.

Nah Stag Do's are basically guys nights out, so 99% of the time they are just all boys and the girls go on a Hen Do instead. They are basically just piss ups where everyone is getting as drunk as possible. So she could, perhaps, have been my +1 to the wedding(s), but not the Stag Do haha. Either way I'm going to the two weddings this month, as my other friend confirmed the other day that I was still invited haha.

That's cool that you bought a house that needed a lot of work too. I think that it's boring to just buy one that is new where every room looks the same as one another, and where the house is basically just a carbon copy of the other 99 homes in the block. However, from a practical standpoint it's much, much easier to buy a new home- where you don't have to worry about replacing boilers, ripping out bathrooms and kitchens or digging up the garden. I just bought a lawnmower the other day actually (just a manual one as it's a small, shared one) so I will try to get in to gardening more often for the remainder of the Summer. Do you grow any vegetables etc? Yes I agree, I like minimalism too. Perhaps not to the extent of a proper minimalist, I still have more than five t shirts etc, but everything I buy needs to have a purpose. Less is more imo. My house is still relatively bare inside, but I'd prefer slowly adding furniture, decorating etc instead of buying a load of crap and paying someone to paint and plaster every room. I'd rather learn as much as I can myself, then outsource whatever I can't do (or I'm not willing to do) to someone else.

The spare room will likely just be used for friends/family, though perhaps I might rent it out on airbnb. I've not decided yet tbh.

Did you manage to go to any of the games, or go to the fan zones or something? Germany were very unlucky against Spain and deserved to go through imo. That side of the draw was an absolute joke, when you look at England's side and how easy their (potential) run to the final is. Spain v Germany would have made the best final and they are probably the two best sides in the competition imo.

Ah cool, I'm glad you enjoyed it the second time around. What did you get up to when you were there? I've not done much research on Portugal or Lisbon yet.

Paul Gough Hey mate. I think we played a few hands at 500nl recently, unless I'm mistaken? Either that or someone is stealing your RIO username haha.

Ah cool I never realised that you were Welsh. You guys done very well for a few years, especially with Bale in the team. That run to the semi finals of the Euros was pretty insane. I was really excited when Rangers signed Aaron Ramsey, but he was injured for most of his spell with us and ended up missing the penalty that cost us the Europa League. I highly doubt we will ever have as good of a chance to win that again with all the money that other teams have, and how seriously they take that competition now. We knocked out Dortmund that season- who were just in the Champions League final lol.

I'm not sure about the state of Welsh football atm if I'm being honest, but it seems like you still have some good players within that squad. Bale is such a massive loss though, and someone who is clearly impossible to replace. Good luck in qualifying for the WC though. I'm unsure if we will make it either. Clarke seems to have taken us as far as he can, but I highly doubt we will sack him and bring in someone else.

Yeah NY was just far too busy for me and, as cheesy as it sounds, I didn't really like the 'vibe' of it. I literally seen someone, in broad daylight on a busy street, run up behind some random guy and punch him in the head. I can't recall ever seeing that in Scotland, unless it's on a drunken night out haha. Yeah tbh I'd love to go to Texas. Online poker seems to be dying a bit tbh, so I might start playing some live poker next year. Texas would be high on the list for sure!

What stakes do you grind when you're there?

Euro 2024- Frankfurt, Germany

I was always planning to take June off, having booked my trip to Germany last year and also being lucky enough to get tickets for three different matches. In the Summer I always prioritise travel and new experiences. Some people like to go to the same country each year and perhaps lie by the pool and relax. Of course having a holiday to recharge your batteries is perfectly understandable (especially for people who work a 9-5 and don't have a ton of time off) but for me I like to go to new places and do new things.

Two years ago that involved going to Budapest for two months, grinding from there and meeting several cool people (most of them I had met through RIO). It was cool getting up every day and heading outside to be greeted by 30c weather. For example, atm in Scotland it's around 15c during the daytime. This is unusually cold for this time of year, but we don't usually get much above 20c either way. The drab weather is definitely making me want to live abroad for a period of time, perhaps it will just be for a few months or maybe for a year or longer, but that is for the some time in the coming years as I will be remaining in Scotland for the remainder of the year, at least, in order to get on with fixing up my house.

Last year it was taking a month off to travel through nine different countries in Europe in a solo, hostel trip. It was basically only the second time I had gone abroad myself (the first time being the previous Summer) and the first time that I had planned to do a trip consisting almost exclusively of staying in hostels. Staying in one place for two months in an airbnb by yourself, and travelling through nine different countries in a month while staying in hostels are clearly very different experiences. Last year I was around people constantly, almost every day meeting new people, and I still keep in touch with some of the people that I met along the way. I have found that people in hostels tend to be much cooler and more open than the average person. It's just a shame that these meetings are so fleeting as both of us follow differing paths.

However this year, it was a trip to Germany, and Frankfurt more specifically, to watch the Euros. I went with my brother and my friend, and we stayed in a hotel in the middle of Frankfurt. I had other family/friends there too, but they were staying elsewhere. I was lucky enough to get four sets of tickets to three different matches- those matches being Portugal v Turkey, France vs Poland and Scotland vs Hungary. It was kind of crazy that I managed to get tickets in the general draw (nobody else that I knew got any) but also that one of the matches was a Scotland game, and the other two were involving some of the best teams with world class players like Ronaldo and Mbappe. It's likely the first, and last time, I will ever see Ronaldo in the flesh, so that will definitely live long in the memory. He could have scored but unselfishly set up Bruno Fernandes for a tap in instead.

Overall I had a great experience. The German fans were so friendly and we would regularly chat to them randomly during games in the fan zone, or even in random places like the toilet lol- some German guy started randomly speaking to me in the toilet about football after asking if I was from the UK. If you walked around in a Scotland top then it was almost guaranteed that someone would start talking to you at some point.

I was pleasantly surprised about Frankfurt tbh. In all honesty we just kind of booked it because it was relatively central in terms of getting to games/stadiums in the surrounding area, but it was a nice city to spend time in, whether that be walking along the river or having a drink in the old square. The matches we went to were in Dortmund and Stuttgart. Dortmund, at least in the centre, seemed pretty mediocre, but Stuttgart was very beautiful (despite being packed with football fans) and it's a city that I would definitely like to explore further in the future if and when I return to Germany. I had a day trip to Heidelberg as well, which was very nice and chill with a cool castle too. It has to have one of the nicest shopping streets I've ever walked down, giving you the feeling that you have been transported back in time 100+ years as you walk past old buildings and on cobbled streets.

Ultimately Scotland's performances at the Euros, Switzerland game aside, were very disappointing. Hungary were a very beatable team, but our system lacks creativity and we play without wingers and without almost any pace, so we were always going to struggle for goals in this tournaments. Either way I really enjoyed myself, and will definitely be open to going back to a major football tournament in the future. Apparently the World Cup is in Canada, US, Mexico etc in a couple years, so if we qualify then I think there's a good chance that I would head over for that. I want to visit Canada again at some point, and I've only been to the US on a brief trip to New York (which I didn't really like tbh). I would like to visit other cities in the US and see what America has to offer, as the people seem to be very extroverted and different from what I am used to in Europe.

I'll probably go on another trip this Summer, as this one only lasted for ten days, but for the remainder of this month I am going to take it easy, play a little poker and spend time with friends and family. I'll likely go away again in August, which might involved a return trip to EPT Barcelona again. If I do go there, then I'll probably incorporate a separate holiday/trip afterwards- because I don't really classify a poker trip as a holiday or as time off. I've never been to Portugal before, so it might make sense to go there, given the close proximity of the two countries to one another. For some reason I find myself liking Portugal at football, and kind of hope they win the Euros. Of course I have to back the Germans too given their great fans, but purely from a footballing perspective, I like Portugal the most of the remaining teams. They also have a cool shirt, and I've made it a bit of a ritual to buy a new football shirt each Summer from one of the countries I've visited. Two years ago it was Ferencvaros, and last year it was AEK Athens. I actually love both of these shirts, and they look cooler than my Rangers/Scotland shirts imo.

I basically took the entirety of June off of poker, bar Sunday where I played a little poker. I had to hop in the 200z pool though, to play alongside some 500/1knl, as I couldn't get enough reg tables running- and 500z never runs nowadays. The regs there play very weird. I dunno if they are trying to make huge adjustments against me because they want to win pots against me or something, but some guy called a 2x pot probe against me with AT high and they seem to do lots of very spazzy plays. It's a stake where you can probably crush regs if you adjust against them properly. I'm not big in to exploits, but if I were to play that stake regularly (which I have no intention on doing) then I definitely would be adjusting a lot. Lets just say my probe strategy vs that player wouldn't replicate a solvers output any longer. Oh, and you could also start using even larger sizings and see when their folding A high threshold begins. Perhaps 200% won't work, but 500% will? :P

Either way it's kind of fun to mess around at this stake and try out different plays, though hopefully I don't have to play it again in the future if I can get enough $500-$2knl tables going. And, like I said before, I will play higher stakes at some point this year too.

I have a couple other topics on my mind that I would like to discuss (one of which CD9 talks about in his blog) but I want to finish my book on this topic first, before I write a post about it. So I already know what I will be writing about next week!

Good luck if your team is still in the Euros.

GG.

CD9K Hey man. How is the new phone going? Have you completely gotten rid of your old iPhone, or you just switch over to the brick for a few days at a time when you are feeling too distracted from social media etc?

I looked in to ordering a brick phone a couple of months ago, but then cancelled the order. I think I'll order one this year, but keep the iPhone in a drawer for when I do things like travel etc and kind of need a phone with internet in order to book hotels/hostels/call Ubers etc. However in the UK, and especially when I'm at home or visiting my hometown, I don't really need a smartphone.

The other thing I thought of was that I would need to start buying things like a camera or use an old iPod if I were to completely get rid of my smartphone. I think that, photos especially, are important in order to capture important moments and experiences in your life. I also like the creativity involved in attempting to get a good photo- good lighting, a good angle, perhaps moving things out the way (if you're taking a photo indoor with friends/family) etc. There is an art in taking a good photo.

I actually bought a board recently and printed off old photos that I will hang in my office. We take so many photos but 99.9% of them sit on our phones and we only glance through them once in a blue moon. Historically we would take photos to print them off and then put them on display, or create photo albums etc.

I could probably do without music for the most part though, as I don't take my phone to the gym and never walk around outside with headphones on.

Anyways I'm not rationalising keeping one, but there are definitely useful functions of a smartphone that we perhaps take for granted. Instead we may fixate on the negatives- things such as social media, Youtube etc. Ultimately a phone is a tool. If we can avoid phone addiction then it makes sense to use the best one (or at least a relatively new one). However, most of us do get addicted to our phones in some way, so then it's about weighing up the pros and cons and then deciding whether or not we are better to get rid of our smartphone or keep them.

Some people can't have junk food in the house or they will binge eat it, other people can have junk food in the house and will rarely touch it. So ideally we would be the type of person to be surrounded by 'temptations' or distractions, yet remain focused on our goals, our task at hand or on simply remaining present.

However, perhaps the best way to reset our minds back towards the factory settings is to remove the distraction(s) completely. Maybe its unrealistic to expect a human to be able to resists the temptations of a constant dopaminergic hit from smartphones, social media and text/messaging notifications. Thus leaving us with no option than to remove the temptation- in this case the smartphone.

The more you know, the more you know you don't know- Aristotle

Last year, during my trip through Eastern(ish) Europe, the city that I found myself enjoying the most was Athens. There was just so much history within that city to learn about, study, admire and explore. Whether that be the Acropolis, the Acropolis museum, the Agora's or the Odeon of Herodes Atticus. I guess because of the works of ancient Greek Philosopher's and Stoics, I have always found that particular countries history very interesting. Even their language is cool. I bought a notebook that has a cover photo on the front of an old marble tablet inscribed with the Ancient Greek language.

It's kind of funny how intelligent, and ahead of their time, some of these Philosopher's were. We have things like computers, mobile phones, AI and endless amounts of books that enable us to hone and improve our knowledge. We may think we have had a Eureka moment, only to google our thoughts and realise that an Ancient Greek Philosopher already said what we just figured out, but done so thousands of years ago without the help of Chat GPT.

In terms of the title of this post, I thought it was an important concept to explore. When we are teenagers we think we know everything, despite our parents telling us otherwise. We are rebelling against authority and attempting to forge our own, independent path in life. We do this, safe in the knowledge that, thankfully, we also know everything there is to be known in the world. Despite our lack of life experience, our lack of maturity and our lack of basic understanding of 99% of the world, we still know everything! It's amazing how this happens :P

However, when we start to study, whether that be College, University or Poker, we start to realise that we may not know everything. When we start to take some kind of interest in politics, we realise that we know even less than we thought. When we start watching a new sport, we quickly figure out that we barely even know the rules of the sport, let alone the players names.

In terms of poker, I started playing in a pre solver era. There wasn't really a great way to learn and correct your thought process, other than watch random training videos from guys that didn't really know what they were doing either- but they were still slightly better in their guesswork than you were with yours.

Nowadays we have solvers, so in that sense it's much 'easier'. However, in the pre solver era, because we didn't know what the correct answers were (or indeed if there were even 'correct' answers for poker) we didn't really realise how little we knew. For example, I recall 3bet/5bet jamming 33 from mp vs utg for like 100bb in some mtt against an aggressive regular. Sure, there was a chance he was over 4betting (thus making my 3bet/5bet jam good) but obviously my decision to 3bet in the first place was kind of crazy- but this is what happens without a pre flop solver. You guess. Your opponents guess. Everyone guesses. Nobody knows what we are doing, and we all live in a state of ignorant bliss where we can blame variance when our 3bet/5bet jam with 33 runs in to AA or KK. It was just bad luck I guess...

It wasn't until a few years ago that it even crossed my mind to study spots like x down to the river in SRP, bet x bet in SRP, bet x bet in 3bet pots etc. But once you start to use a solver to study (perhaps its SRP btn vs bb looking at triple barrel line) then you start to get curious about what happens when you x the flop and face a probe, or when you x the flop and have the opportunity to delayed cbet, or when you x back again and face a river stab. Studying one spot starts to open up your eyes to all of these other spots where you have a knowledge gap.

Then you do the same for 3bet pots, for 4bet pots, for bvb, for utg vs bb SRP, for OOP vs Btn flat SRP etc.

Previously we looked at poker in terms of- I'm going to 3bet this guy and hope he spazzes off his chips to me, whether it be with this hand or a future hand.

To- I'm going to study bvb bet x bet node and see both how thinly I'm supposed to value bet otr, and how I construct my river bluffing range.

I was like an NPC playing these lines 6-7 years ago. Maybe I bluffed them sometimes, but it was with absolutely zero gameplan whatsoever. This is the beauty of solvers. The more we study with them, the more we realise that we don't know.

Cool, now I have some idea of how to delayed river cbet bluff btn vs bb, now I need to do the same for bvb. Cool, now I know how to bluff OOP in a 3bet pot on the triple barrel line on an A high board, now I need to do the same for when I am in IP vs OOP call in a 3bet pot. Nice one, I just x raised the flop in a SRP and barreled off against my opponent and got a fold at some point. Good, cos in all honesty I was just button clicking- so now it's time to review that hand and correct my thought process so that I can make that same x raise/barrel off in the future with clarity in my mind.

Of course this is also applicable to non poker endeavours. At the moment I am (very slowly) redecorating and fixing up my house. Before I moved in I didn't really know how a boiler worked. I thought that the boiler pumped up gas in to your radiator, not that it heats up water and then sends that heated water to the radiators throughout the house. I thought that taking off wallpaper would be easy (wrong), and that redecorating an entire house within 6 months would be a realistic target- alongside a full time job (also wrong).

Now that I have some time off poker, I am trying to learn about redecorating. So I went to the library and borrowed a book that walks you through all the different steps required to redecorate. First up- tools! No matter how knowledgeable you are when it comes to redecoration, you can't do so without the correct tools. I've been slowly buying tools since I moved in to my house, buying my first ever drill (I gotta admit I love using a drill), then more basic things like a hammer, screwdriver set, saw etc and then things like a wallpaper steamer for the redecorating. With the help of that book, I was able to identify some other tools that I needed before I can start to sand down, fill in and eventually paint the spare room. So I will work through the remaining chapters so that I have a decent understanding of what I am doing before I start.

So even though I am quite good at poker, in the grand scheme of things, I am a fish at redecoration. Indeed, I am a fish (and most people are) at 99% of things. Even if you get to a high level in one area of your life, it seems to merely make you realise how little you know in almost every other area. Of course we could simply outsource these issues on to other people, and pay them to do the work for us- but where is the fun in that? I want to learn about how to fix up and redecorate a house, so that I have decent foundations going forward. That means if I want to do it again in the future, I will be able to do so- and probably at a much faster rate due to my learned knowledge and experiences from my first attempts.

In the past I wouldn't even think about these types of things. In the pre solver era, or indeed the pre home owner era, we live in a state of ignorant bliss. We just click buttons at the poker tables, or allow our parents to fix the blocked toilet, or the leaky pipe. We think we know everything, but in reality we know almost nothing. Then, when we are thrust in to the 'real world' and have to start to figure out things by ourselves, we slowly (or perhaps very quickly) realise that we have been living in an insulated bubble. That bubble has burst, and now we must face the cold, harsh reality of a pre flop solver. Suddenly our 3bet/5bet jams with 33 are under the theoretical microscope- and it's not pretty!

However, now is the time for growth. When the day inevitably arrives where we realise how little we know, then that is the time where we can start truly learning. Because even though we may realise how little we know, we also realise how little everyone else in this world knows- whether that be your friend or the billionaire. Everyone is knocked off their pedestal and we are all simultaneously humbled.

The Ancient Greeks Philosophers might not have had a pre flop solver, but they were certainly on to something!

Sam Crowe You seem to be quite knowledgeable when it comes to yoga! I don't really know a ton about the practice tbh, but it's definitely good to know a bit more on the background of the practice and it's history, as well as the various kinds of yoga etc. I ended up signing up and getting the 4x classes per month package (it costs like £50 pm). The other ones were a bit too expensive imo given the fact I'm also a golf member and a gym member as well.

So I'll start off with this and might increase it to 8x classes per month if I enjoy it. In all honesty I think there's a decent chance I won't renew my golf membership next year, so I'll probably increase the yoga frequency then. I just feel like I should be doing relaxing sports, or at the very least fairly non competitive ones, cos I already play a competitive game for a living and I need my time off the tables to help me mentally reset and relax. Anyways I'll make the most of it for the rest of the year and then go from there. I'm happy I tried something 'new' and didn't just stick with the gym/running etc as per usual.

That's a good point about increasing the 'sweat threshold' each time we do a more strenuous, sweat inducing workout, but I still enjoy that feeling of having done 'hard work' and having beads of sweat roll down by forehead. Even if it's just doing something in hot weather (the workout may not even be that tough) imo it's still satisfying to feel like you have worked hard physically, even if you've just done a 5k in the sun. Of course it's good to do more relaxing and less strenuous exercise too, like walking, yoga (at room temp) etc, but I think it's good to do both and have a balance of harder workouts and more relaxing ones. So I want to add a bit more intensity to my gym workouts, especially at the end- doing things such as farmers carries, sled pushes etc. Instead of just doing bench press, shoulder press etc and then leaving the gym.

How one does anything is how one does everything, so it is important
to have structure and goals with things outside of poker. I think
understanding this is an element of what separates people who earn
freedom from poker, from people who have lost all their freedom to
poker.

Your last sentence is extremely important imo. There is a thin line between us grinding 12 hours of poker every day, then eating, watching some TV before going to sleep and going it all over again (losing our freedom to poker) and grinding 4-6 hours so that we can use that poker freedom to get outside, do something social, do a workout, meet new people, travel, read etc. I think it's easy to fall in to the former camp if we aren't careful (and lets be honest we all started off there as we began our poker careers). We get offered a great rakeback deal and think 'I only have to play 8 hours every day for a year to hit this target'. The reality is that we cannot play every single day, and thus, we will probably have to spend like 12 hours grinding whenever we do play and whenever we aren't completely burnt out.

So dangling that rakeback carrot in front of us (or indeed one of the other things that you mentioned) can be temptation enough to forego our daily happiness, life experiences, social life, healthy/fitness etc and instead put all of our eggs in to the 'playing poker' basket.

Anyways I feel like my life is fairly balanced and I'm not overly focused on big volume goals, instead I try to play around four hours per day 5x per week (not including whenever I decide to play tournaments) and then 1-2 hours of study 5x days per week too. It sounds like I have a ton of free time when you lay it down in these terms, but there is always so much to catch up on, and then if you are going to the gym, playing golf etc too, and then finish grinding at like 12/1am, then you don't have a ton of time to do other things.

I could definitely cut down on some crap like watching Youtube etc though. I've deleted chess.com from my phone, so at least I don't waste hours playing that game any longer (even though I like chess it's too much of a time drain).

So are you like one of seven dudes in all of Scotland who does not
drink?!

Hahah yeah I don't think I really know anybody else who doesn't drink. Some friends/family don't drink very often, but my Gran is probably the only one who doesn't drink at all- and that's more because she is religious (and also 94 lol). However I've never been one to allow others to influence me (at least since I became an adult) and most of my big choices in life (career, diet, not drinking etc) are and were very unusual to the average person. I think that a lot of people are extremely influenced by both society and their friends/family circle, but I've never really let these things influence me too much and I just make decisions that seem to make the most sense for me.

So that was quitting University to pursue poker (when only two people I knew thought it was a good idea), going Vegan when it was considered a weird hippy diet (and I was the butt of jokes for the first few years afterwards), quitting alcohol in Scotland when almost everyone else drinks (everyone always asking why I'm not drinking on a night out), not taking the vax when everyone around me was pressuring me to do so etc.

Even this year I turned down two stag do's of close friends as I was dreading going to them (I don't really like the stag do culture and I'd also be completely sober). I think one of them might be pissed off as he hasn't spoken to me much since, but the other one is cool with it and we are playing a round of golf instead. I felt quite a lot of social pressure to go to both of these, but then I realised this was just peer pressure I'd created in my mind, and just to make the decision thats best for me. Of course we also have to take our friends in to consideration too, but I will happily make time for them on any other weekend if they want to hang out and do something together. Stag do's just aren't for me.

Maybe I have lost a friend as a result, but if that's the case then so be it. I am just going to be true to myself and if other people don't like me then that's their decision.

The one reoccurring difficulty for me is that I dislike going to bed
right after a session so I stay up later than I would like. I like my
evening routine, cooking, meditation, reading to sleep... I find that
sleeping during the night yields better quality of sleep. I have also
found that playing poker during the night yields some nice action
haha. Obviously...

I completely relate to this haha. There's a difficult balance between playing in the best games (usually late in the evenings) and having a more 'normal' poker schedule. I think poker is too much of an intellectually stimulating game to be able to go to sleep directly after playing, and tbh it doesn't even seem that healthy to do imo. I'd imagine that if Bryan Johnson were a poker player, he definitely wouldn't go to sleep immediately after a poker session! haha.

What you wrote is almost like the introduction of a workshop on
transition.

Yes that was the idea. I'm not an expert at mtt's by any means but I feel like if you take this approach, as a cash game player, then you can at least become profitable in mtt's. Then you can create and refine your own mtt study routine after you've become profitable in them and have some kind of baseline understanding on how to play them.

I live in LA. I will visit Scotland, I'll let you know. That sounds
like a nice trip, kind of spiritual to go to a place so different form
my desert landscape. Same to you, let me know if you are ever in the
area.

Sounds good! There are so many American tourists in Inverness. I feel like a lot of them come over here because of their ancestry etc and because there is a lot of history within Britain, which the US kind of lacks. For example our castles etc. Do you mostly play online or you play live games in LA too?

Anyways, that's me finally caught up at least :P

Sam Crowe Hey man. I appreciate your long comment and I will get back to you properly very soon, but I need to get to sleep as I'm up early tomorrow to catch a train haha. I just wanted to write my SCOOP wrap-up post before I left.

Hope you're having a good week!

SCOOP 2024 wrap-up

As another SCOOP series draws to a close, another Summer beckons over the horizon. As one thing ends, another thing begins. It is with both happiness, yet sadness that this great series is over. It will be back to a more 'normal' sleeping pattern (perhaps 3-4am bed time instead of 5-6am). It will be back to the gym on a more consistent basis, it will be back to arranging social plans and leaving the house- something that I didn't do between Saturday and Wednesday evening this week.

As much as I am looking forward to the Summer, of going to my first ever European football championship (or Euro's for people that know football), seeing Scotland playing in the flesh, going to my friends wedding(s), hanging out my brother who is back from Australia, going camping with my friends, going hiking and perhaps doing another solo hostel trip around Europe, there will be days during those warm(ish) Summer months where I long for this months antisocial, poker oriented routine. When I would go to sleep at 6am and wake up at 2pm. When I would get up and barely have enough time to study, let alone go to the gym, get outside and even do a food shop. When I'd have to run downstairs on my hourly five minute breaks and go to the toilet or throw on some food.

It would be a month of pasta from a (luckily) plentiful supply. It would be repetitive meals, but unpredictable poker sessions. It would be running hot at cash games, but shit at tournaments. It would be sun running one session and then getting coolered continuously in the next.

As the series wore on, I became more and more of a recluse. I would wake up, do some study, wash the dishes and then get on the grind. That would be me until the early hours of the morning. However, did I wish to be doing something else? No. It was fun. There were times when I was running hot and felt invincible (at least at cash). However, there were also times when I was running terrible and punched a wall (that happened once over the course of this month). Towards the end of the month I could feel myself getting a bit salty, more frustrated at coolers and of regs making 'bad' plays but getting bailed out by variance. Of course I'm not proud of these moments, but ultimately if you are (largely) housebound for almost a month and if you eat, sleep and breathe a game, then you are going to be emotionally invested in that game- especially when there are thousands of dollars on the line during every session.

Anyways, thankfully in the last couple of sessions I was able to enjoy myself again, so I finished on a more positive note instead of the 'I fucking hate this game' mood that I experienced only a matter of days ago. It's funny how a good sleep, a new day and a new session can wipe the slate clean.

My plan was to play five days per week, taking Mondays and Fridays off, except from during the last week (this week) where I would play Monday- Wednesday. I am proud to say that I literally didn't miss one day. Even on Saturday as Rangers lost (yet again) to our biggest rivals, in a cup final no less, I just accepted the soft tilt and got on with playing. In Barcelona, for example, I didn't play a few times simply because Rangers had lost and I was in a terrible mood. I am currently reading Ross Edgley's book (the first man to ever swim continuously around the British coast) and he talks about controlling the controllable's during his swim. He could control his diet, he could control his mindset and (to a certain extent) his body, but he could not control the weather, the waves, the boats nearby or even his father getting diagnosed with terminal cancer while on the swim (his father insisted he completed the swim though).

So while I can support Rangers, ultimately I cannot control them in any way- other than cheering at a game whenever I attend one. As I have almost no bearing on their results, it doesn't make a ton of sense to allow those (uncontrollable) results to dictate my mood and decide if I'm having a good day or a bad day. I'm not going to lie and pretend that I don't care when they lose, I'm still pissed off about the weekends result (we were the better team and should have won), but I don't want these frustrations to destroy the rest of my day. I can accept and feel these negative emotions, but still move forward regardless. It seems like each year that passes, days and time seem to pass by even quicker than before. I am definitely aware that I cannot afford to take time for granted, and that each and every day counts and matters- even if Rangers lose a cup final.

I just have to make the most of the rest of the day, even if I may not be in the best mood ever.

Of course we can apply this concept to poker as well. Bad plays and bad players will get bailed out by variance (at least in the short term) but in the mid-long term, our skill edge will prevail. This isn't always easy to accept in the heat of a session, after a long grind when you are tired and frustrated at losing a lot of money, but ultimately we need to just reset emotionally and come back the next day- aiming to play as well as possible and print that mid-long term (but also hopefully short term, if we run good) EV.

Overall this month I won around $21k from cash games (including rakeback) and lost around $7,700 at mtt's. Obviously mtt's didn't go great, but I only played like 150 of them so it's very standard variance. My ABI in them was around $100, just because I feel like I need to prove myself at lower stakes first and have a history of good profit at them before I start moving up and increasing my ABI. I would rather slowly build up and improve my mtt fundamentals along the way, than to rush in and try to just go on a heater and rely on luck. Overall I am up around $130k lifetime in mtt's, but I still feel like I am an intermediate in them and still have a lot to improve on.

One guy that I speak to (who also plays cash) asked how I would approach studying for mtt's, coming from a cash background. I've yet to reply to him (yet) but I will outline what I do in here.

Posftlop- Look at some short stacked sims (10-40bb) and then look at how you play hands such as top pair, compared to how you play them at 100bb. Now we need to fast play hands such as top pair, due to the lower SPR, but we can actually slow play a lot more hands such as two pair (that we would pure raise at 100bb) simply because the money can go in easily and we want to let our opponent either bluff or catch up.

Preflop- Look at defence ranges, especially when it comes to facing 3bets and defending vs RFI from the bb. In terms of 3bets, you will defend a lot wider at mtt's than you would at cash, simply due to the lack of rake (the rake gets taken from the buyin not from each pot you play). I was definitely over folding by a lot vs 3bets at mtt's because I was playing similar ranges to those at cash. For example lets say you open 66 utg and get 3bet from IP 6h, you will maybe call like 33% of the time and fold the rest, but in an mtt you will pure call- and pretty much pure call all your pocket pairs. This is quite a big difference.

ICM- I'm not exactly sure what is the best place to start with this tbh, but you need to at least learn about this concept so that you can maximise your chances of winning as much money on final tables, give yourself the best chances of min cashing, or of getting in to a satellite etc.

That's probably a good place to start. I'm no expert in these but I feel a lot more confident in them now that I've started to study them more often. GTO wizard is an excellent tool for tournaments, as it would be almost impossible for someone to run all of these spots by themselves- even if they were renting a server. I just get the one that is like $90 or so per month and it does the job.

I was actually up $5k in tournaments this year before this month, so I'm only down like $3k in them for the year after this month- which is almost breakeven given the variance in them. I'm gonna start playing them on Sundays again, after I take some time off for this Summer, as I feel like there is good value in them, I enjoy the challenge of learning and mastering a new format, and I think my aggressive playstyle is pretty well suited to them.

Cash games went really well this month, which is my bread and butter, and I plan to continue to study and improve at them as well. Cash games will always be my number one priority, at least for the forseeable future, but I see no reason why I can't dedicate a day or two per week towards studying and improving my mtt game. My WR is, so far this year, where I want to be (I always aim to be winning at at least 5bb/100). But there is still a lot of room for improvement- though not quite as much as there is in my mtt game!

The only slight downside was that I didn't hit my cash game volume goals this month, but they were probably unrealistic given the fact that I was also playing tournaments at the same time. I hit my schedule goals though, so I am more happy about that than anything else, as in previous years I would have definitely taken off at least a few days for no real reason during the series- or would have allowed that Rangers result to tilt me to the extent that it was no longer a good idea to play poker on the same day!

I've got to play another 8k hands of cash before I can fully take the Summer off, but I think I'll take a week off to reset from SCOOP and then try to get them in before I leave for Germany on the 16th of June.

Antisocial, poker oriented May is over- time to enjoy the Summer!

GG.

Not gonna lie, this hand tilted me haha

Clean bluff catcher

SCOOPing- part two

Life-

Last week I was a bit slack in terms of my exercise. I didn't go to the gym at all and didn't play golf either. I went on a decent walk on Monday, then went to Yoga classes on Thursday and Friday. There were some days where I intended to go to the gym, but then by the time I got up, studied, washed the dishes, read etc then it was either too late and I wanted to start grinding soon, or I had simply lost motivation to go.

However at the moment I have decided that the number one priority is poker. So exercise is going to take a backseat to my poker plans. I think that, while it's obviously very important to exercise, sometimes we give too much importance towards things that don't deserve that importance.

For example, lets say we intend to go to the gym today and then play poker afterwards, but perhaps we have been up late the evening before grinding (or watching a film or whatever). Now we are behind on the day and are not going to make the intended session starting time. We think 'oh I have to go the the gym and study first' yet by the time those things are done, along with the chores of daily life, it may be an hour or two later than we initially intended to start playing.

So you can either start later on and prepare for the session as previously intended, or decide to cut out things that aren't vitally important for your main focus (which for me atm is grinding). I went through a period of around a week or so where I was focusing less on study, but I feel like that is so important for me that I cannot afford to do that. I should be getting in at least an hour of study basically every single day (unless it's a day off) without fail.

As I'm not an athlete then exercise takes on less importance. For me it's more about health and feeling good. But taking off a day or two during the middle of SCOOP is going to make literally no difference to my health, and so long as I meditate etc before I start playing, I should go in to the session in a good mood regardless.

I've mentioned this book several times before but I've start reading 'eat that frog' for like the third or fourth time. I always read a chapter after my meditation (often it's only like 5-6 pages) but it helps me to clarify where my priorities lie and gets me in to a productive mindset for the day ahead. It reminds me that it is perfectly acceptable to 'procrastinate' and delay the less important things in your life for the time being, and shift all of your focus on to your main priority(s).

So for an athlete who is trying to learn poker on the side, then perhaps they need to sacrifice their daily one hour of poker study for the time being, as they enter a crucial period in their sporting season. But for the poker player, perhaps we need to sacrifice one or two gym sessions in order to begin our session on time. Then when we have more flexibility around our poker schedule again, we can go back to increasing the priority on exercise (or whatever else, perhaps its decorating or washing your car).

My Dad came up on Saturday and we went to watch the football team he supports (Hamilton Academical) play against Inverness. The winner would go in to the second tier of Scottish football, and the loser would enter the third tier. Fortunately Hamilton won, but I didn't want Inverness to go down either as I am unlikely to bother watch them next season if they are playing in such a low division.

Poker-

I don't think I really bothered to play any tournaments until Sunday, where I decided to reg maybe 10-12 of them- basically just the biggest prizepools for my buy in range. I'll play up to $530 buy ins (though I'll play $1k main events too) but I don't want to buy in for a ton and just wipe out my cash game profits, so I've not even really been bothering with the $530s this SCOOP either. I know that I'm going to be +EV in these tournaments, but I also know that I am far from an mtt expert as that is not my area of expertise.

So then you have the trade off between studying for mtt's at the expense of your daily cash game study, as I don't think you can do both on the same day unless you are having a day off of playing. What is more important and where am I likely to excel in going forward? The answer is clearly cash games, even though it's of course possible to get very good at mtt's if you study them too.

Of course another approach is just to gamble, to buy in to $1ks $2ks etc and then just back that your cash game background will give you a good edge post flop on these mtt regs. I think this is true to a certain extent, but it's also complicated when you are playing bvb limped in mtt's when you normally play RFI only bvb at cash. And it's difficult to play from the bb with a 70% range when you are normally defending 30-40% or whatever it is. Suddenly those heuristics that you have for bvb and SRP's no longer apply when you are playing with completely different ranges and completely different stack sizes.

Of course your cash game fundamentals should still allow you to make better 'guesses' as to what to do post flop than an mtt player, but they almost certainly have an edge on you pre flop, so you have to factor in that too as that will cancel out a lot of that edge- especially when you are on FT's where it's mostly a pre flop game driven by ICM pressure.

That's why I focused a lot of my initial mtt study on pre flop. On figuring out what are the pre flop defence thresholds vs 3bets, what hands do we 4bet jam etc, how wide we defend from the bb vs RFI when there is now no rake and there are antes (dead money) in the pot.

Anyways I cashed a couple tournaments, one being the Big 109 (which I finally won earlier this year) and the $250 main even on GG, which I went relatively deep in before losing a few all ins in a row and busting in around 100th place. So it was better than the previous Sunday where I cashed almost nothing.

Cash games went well, though it was weird cos on some nights on Stars there were hardly any games running, then on other nights you could be playing 3-4 tables of $1k and some $2k too. I had one very frustrating session where I was up like $3k and then just seemed to lose every pot and ended up losing $4k in the end. Obviously it's a pretty standard losing session for these stakes, but it's annoying when you start off well and then don't win a pot for an hour or two.

There's only 1.5 weeks left of SCOOP, and so far I haven't missed one day that I had intended to play on. I have been close on some days, but ended up playing regardless. It seems like I have finally shifted the anxiety that would often lead me to sabotaging sessions that I had intended to play. So in that sense I am really happy about this mental progress. I am edging closer to my $5k shots too, but in all honesty I don't even know where I would take them as my roll isn't huge on GG and $5k rarely seems to run on Stars unless it's reg battling- which doesn't seem the wisest way to shot take.

Anyways, back to the grind again tomorrow! I look forward to playing and finishing the series strong, even if it's just on the cash game tables and less so on the mtt tables.

GG.

Not the hand you wanna see

Sam Crowe Haha that's cool that you researched that, you probably know more about Bothies now than I do :D There is one that is relatively close to Inverness, so I plan on going there post SCOOP. However, for the moment my focus is on poker and then on relaxing/catching up with things on my days off. If you ever decide to come to Scotland then lmk and we can hang out.

Wow 35c is pretty hot to do yoga in tbh, I doubt the studio that I'm in is ever above 20c haha. Though this is probably because we are in Scotland and they leave the windows open haha, and it doesn't get much about 20c in Scotland anyways, even in the Summer time bar the odd heat wave. I feel like it's more satisfying to do exercise and come out sweating afterwards, those beads of sweat are like tangible evidence that you have done something physically exerting. Where as when you come out bone dry then it doesn't always feel that way haha.

That makes sense about how far one can push themselves in yoga and about flexibility etc. Like you say, the main point of going is because it makes you feel good afterwards, where as improving our flexibility etc is just a bonus. I think that once you stop drinking and don't take drugs etc either, you need to start finding ways to make yourself feel good and occasionally get that 'high'. I wouldn't really compare exercise high's to drugs or alcohol, but exercise high's still definitely make you feel good.

That community event sounds like fun, but don't wait too long to do your cold plunge! Sometimes it's better to just say 'fuck it' and get it done. What's the worst that can happen? ;)

Ah cool that makes sense. What part of the US do you live in?

Sam Crowe Sorry I still need to respond to your longer comment haha, will do that the next time I write a post.

The bothies are owned and maintained by The Mountain Bothies Association, which is basically a charity that makes sure to upkeep them and also renovates them every so often if they need it. Cos these buildings are very old and some of them wouldn't even have been used to live in, they might have been used for hunting etc. They are free to stay in but don't have electricity, running water etc and often don't have a toilet either- though some have compost toilets outside.

I prefer the slower yoga that is more focused on flexibility (cos I need to improve that) but I also sometimes do the flows as well. How about your, what are your favourite ones to do? Have you been in the ice bath yet?

Thanks, good luck if you are playing too!

Yeah it is going well thanks. It's nice not having to deal with landlords (house owners) and being able to deal with any issues by myself. In terms of work on the house, I have not done much this year as I've just been prioritising grinding and exercise etc, then during my time off I tend to go back to visit my parents or see other family/friends. However, I plan on resuming the redecoration at the beginning of June once SCOOP is over, and I'll do more over the Summer when I have time off of poker.

Inverness is really nice. It has quite a chill 'vibe' and relaxing to walk around. There are lots of tourists here so people aren't as in a rush to get to work etc as they may be in other cities. It's also very scenic with a nice river, lots of old buildings and mountains in the background. I would definitely recommend visiting if you come back to Scotland :)

I need to make more of an effort to meet local people too, which again I've not been prioritising as I wanna focus more on poker. However now I'm playing more golf, going to yoga etc then I've been chatting to a lot more people and I also frequent a pub on the same street that I live on, where I watch all the Rangers games. So I tend to speak to the regulars who go there for the football.

How about yourself? What have you been up to this year?

SCOOPing

Last week I received a message from a yoga studio that I had briefly visited last year for a few classes. They offered me a free two week pass, which I promptly took them up on. In the past I would do yoga on an almost daily basis, but for the past couple of years I have kind of fallen out of the habit and I don't think I'd done it even once this year before my invitation. So I ended up going to a class on Monday, which was good, and I chatted to a few people at the end too- who were pretty cool!

SCOOP started the day before, on the Sunday. So I wasn't even sure that I could make the class it would have clashed with any day two's were I take to make any. Unfortunately (and in the yoga's case, fortunately) I didn't make any.

The plan for this years series is to mostly focus on cash games and play tournaments on the side. I was going to focus more of my study and time this year on mtt's, but in all honesty I've not done that and instead I just want to focus on making as much money as I can from cash, and on moving back up to $5k and $10k and finally getting some volume in there. However, a nice mtt bink this month could help me to get there much sooner!

Basically I will take Mondays and Fridays off and play for the remaining five days of the week, unless I make some day two's on Sunday- then I will play Monday as well. Usually I take Monday's and Saturday's off, but Fridays are the official SCOOP days off, so it makes sense to shift my schedule slightly to align with that.

I've kind of fallen off with my gym consistency, and don't think i've been twice in a week (as usual) for a few weeks now. Last week I went to two yoga classes, played golf one day and went to the gym and done an upper body workout. I think that exercising five days per week going ahead is a good place to aim for, but I also need to be mindful to balance solo exercise (like the gym) with some more social exercise (like yoga classes) as I need to meet more people up here. It hit 20c for the first time this year, so it's getting to the stage where I want to spend more time outdoors and less time indoors. That will mean adding in hiking as well, and I plan on doing more camping- as well as staying in Bothies, and perhaps increasing my weekly golf to twice per week.

So maybe I will just cancel my gym membership for a couple months and focus more on outdoor activities, I dunno. Either way, my weekly exercise routine is going to look something similar to this-

1x yoga class
1-2x golf rounds
1-2x gym sessions
1x hike

I've been thinking about signing up for another marathon this year but I don't think I really have time to train for it, cos it basically becomes almost like a full time job on the side when you have to run 3x per week, but also have to recover from those long runs etc. If I signed up for it then I would have to forgo some of those other sports, which doesn't make a ton of sense given I just splashed out on a golf membership and just mentioned about how I need to do more social sports in order to meet people. Running by yourself isn't ideal for that haha.

I would actually say that its best to do a marathon earlier on in the year, before the Summer- like I did in April two years ago. Sure, you have to train in the cold months prior to it, but you don't want to play golf in January, you don't want to go hiking in February. Where as when it comes to Summer time, then there are so many outdoor sports that are suddenly much more appealing when its 20c+ and sunny.

It's funny as I'm almost like a hermit in the Winter months, then the complete opposite during the Summer time. I really want to do another hostel trip around Europe, but I'm not sure to which area cos I've been to the bulk of it at this point. Most likely it would need to be more of Eastern Europe, unless I wished to repeat some of the same countries again. I wanna visit Asia for the first time too, and really like the idea of Japan. I seen a TV show on it recently and the North of Japan looked really nice and very traditional. Tokyo looked a lot more futuristic and just more like a typical big city. Nowadays I prefer small cities near to nature- like Salzburg, or Inverness (where I live).

Anyways, in terms of poker it's been a good start to the month at cash games, but less good at tournaments- typical mtt's! It's kind of difficult to get in volume at cash games, at least on Stars. 500z very rarely runs and even getting enough $1k and $500nl tables is often a struggle. Ideally I would only be grinding $1k+, but there just aren't enough games on Stars to play those stakes alone. I've been playing a little $1k on GG as well, but the rake is very high there so it's more just one table on the side for some extra hands per hour and a (probably) very low WR. It's 5bb/100 rake on GG at $1k, compared to 2bb/100 on Stars, and on Stars I'm on like 40% rakeback so it's almost like 1bb/100 rake. So obviously it's a no brainer where I would like to prioritise volume at that stake!

During Sundays session I was running decent at cash but I literally don't think I had one mtt cash. So it's kind of weird in a sense when you are running good at one format but crap in another. However it's just about playing in profitable games, and in the long run, you will make money!

Today (Monday) was my day off, so I caught up on some things I've been meaning to do for a while and called some of my family members too, as I'm pretty bad when it comes to calling/texting people. I prefer to just arrange plans to meet up in person and talk to them then. I decided to go for a walk around Inverness and in to this nice area that I hadn't walked through since I moved here. I found a really cool reading spot too, on this bench that is slightly elevated and overlooks the river- so i'm definitely going to be frequenting that spot a lot in the years to come!

It's back to the grind again tomorrow, and I'll be playing some tournaments alongside the usual cash game grind. I'm just trying to grind hard for the remaining 2.5 weeks of SCOOP and then I'll likely take 1-2 months off so I can travel, play golf, go hiking and see friends and family.

But for now it's time to grind!

GG.

480bb pot at $1k

Bluffin'

GTO jam, non GTO result

The 'I think he's bluffing' call down

Going hardcore

Life-

I just finished reading Elon Musk's latest Biography by Walter Isaacson. It was a very long book (over 600 pages) but some of these pages were pictures (so probably like 550 pages of actually reading) and overall I found the book very easy to read, and very difficult to put down.

In the past I never read biographies or autobiographies, as they felt a little too self indulgent to me. However, I have now changed my perspective and I think that they are a very good way to gain an insight in to peoples lives that you would, otherwise, not gain much insight in to.

I remember starting to read self improvement/help books aged eighteen, when I realised that I had mental leaks that needed plugged. However, over time these have (for the most part) been plugged, so now I feel like the next step in my 'self improvement' journey is to learn from the best and to pick up some small things from them in the process, that I can then apply to my own life.

When it comes to Elon Musk, there are many things that I admire about him- but also things that I would not like to mimic. However, I don't think that someone needs to be perfect in order to learn from them. So surely it makes sense to try to pick up a thing or two from the wealthiest man in the world who (somehow) runs six different businesses simultaneously.

One thing that resonated with me was his mantra about 'going hardcore'. At Tesla, Space X etc he would make sure his employees would work long hours, and push them to their limits in order to speed up the production processes. Of course for some people this didn't suit them and they would quit, but for others it did suit them, and they find purpose and meaning in pursuing a higher mission than themselves- whether that be trying to create a car that could run on renewable energy, or create a rocket that would enable us to (eventually) becoming a multi-planetary species.

That's the beauty of being part of a team and having a common mission, and a big, bold end goal. As poker players we are (for the most part) partaking in a single player game, where we study by ourselves and play by ourselves. We don't really have any long term 'mission' except from trying to move up in stakes and become one of the best poker players.

We are trying to get to $50/$100, not trying to get to Mars.

Musk is clearly a workaholic (personally I much prefer more of a work/life balance) and would push these surges in his companies, where he would encourage his employees to work hardcore for a short period of time and try to meet some sort of very unreasonable and unattainable deadline.

Usually they would (just) miss the deadline, but either way, it showed that when you really want to, we can work so much harder than we think we are capable of doing. We can sleep for a few hours under a desk, and then get back on to the rocket grind after a coffee and some cereal out of a paper cup.

Overall I am someone who enjoys time off as much as they enjoy studying and grinding, but this book inspired me to, at least sometimes, go on my own surge and 'go hardcore'. If we have a car that can go 150mph, then we are very rarely going to hit this top speed and instead, usually max out at around 70mph along the motorway. However, perhaps it is sometimes good to see how far we can push ourselves, and floor it to see how fast we can go.

Even if we do enjoy a good work/life balance, maybe sometimes we should just grind all night and play 3x longer than we set out to do before the session. Perhaps we should set a bold monthly hands target, as a one off, and push ourself in order to achieve this- even if it's just to prove to ourselves that we have the capacity to 'go hardcore' every once in a while.

Poker-

So on Saturday last week, as I was deciding whether to play a session or not, I decided to play- on a day that I typically take off. I knew I was going to head back to my parents the following day, and knew that I would have a week or so off, before SCOOP begins the following Sunday.

Should I chill and watch a film, or should I take some inspiration from Elon Musk and go on a late night surge? I decided to do the latter, starting my session at 1am (usually not a good idea) and playing until 7:30am. In the end I lost a small amount, but overall I was quite happy with how I played, especially considering that I was playing at such stupid times (I typically aim to play between 8pm-12am).

In the past I used to have at least a few of these all night sessions per year (usually losing a ton as I was almost falling asleep) but in the past few years I have kind of cut this out. I was just inspired to take a leaf out of my old, grinder book, and put in some hands.

So that is the plan for this month. I will play some SCOOP events on the side of my daily cash game grind, and aim to have a good month- one that hopefully involves a big MTT bink! When I start to lose motivation I will look deep within, and ask- what would Elon do? Would he take a day off? Would he play a three hour session and then watch TV for the remainder of the night? Or would he identify this as, at least in online poker terms, one of the best and most important times of the year to grind- and then double down in terms of volume!

May- let's go hardcore!