alright i'll bite, back in auckland now... lunch or dinner tomorrow? i'm feeling a bit sick still but should be N P
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Week of 26th of March
Got back from choir camp this afternoon! I got about 7-8 combined hours of sleep as per usual over the weekend (5 consecutive games of mafia last night starting from 11pm YAY!!) so I feel like I've been hit by a truck and had to sleep for a couple of hours this afternoon and am barely keeping it together right now...might just rest my eyessssssssss................NO!
I'm definitely sleeping in tomorrow and will do the last half of the post then. I'm not happy with last week so I'm going to postpone my reward (Denon AHD-2000 headphones) till I nail a week of good study/mental journalling and find a coach that can help me with my PLOHU. I've got the BACH™ in two weeks and I'd like to have them for then so I have a good feeling about this week coming up 
-Morning walk is good
[X] [X] [X] [X] [X]
-1 on 1 hangout/catchup with someone
[X] (with the always LOVELY chenny8888 
)
-Spend 45 minutes reviewing all ins and big pots at the end of the workday
[X] [X] [F] [X] [X]
-Resume that hard cardio, run or kickboxing each day
[X] [X] [X] [X] [X]
Feels good. Went to 4 classes, almost every muscle group was in agony over the weekend. I probably trained too hard tbh and couldn't really exert myself towards the end of the week. Going to hit the ground running tomorrow and keep working on it.
-Keep a mental journal each day
[X] [F] [F] [F] [F]
I really need to resume (probably from the beginning) my jared tendler reading. I've been caught up with the night watch book series/mass effect 1-2-3 and fitting in some final fantasy VII (first time playing through!) on my phone in the evenings. I'm not totally sure how to structure this but I do have some quite powerful tendencies to start playing awfully in HU and must practice this goal to get the most out of it.
-Find a coach and book a session
[F]
The bottom line is I haven't pursued this aggressively enough, will try to make a decent effort next week.
I will post more tomorrow but excuse me for now while I fall unconscious for about 10 hours or so.
TerrorBlade
Part Deux
So the first quarter of the year is over, it's generally the least productive for me, but I still managed to ship a decent amount. Here's a girraffe for those who are more visual.
It's no Yoghi graph, but it's a pretty solid (and thinly veiled) brag
That is mostly FLHU. In PLOHU I am +18 stacks or around 1500$ this year but like 35 stacks above allin EV (lol). I'm not finding my current course optimal if I want to increase my skill and thus my earn.
In january I clocked 110 hours of FLHU (wow). This was a mixture of disproportionate amount of action given, and also I spent an unsustainable amount of time at the tables tbh.
In Feb it was something like 80 hours and march something like 45 (only an hour and a half a day on average!). March is an outlier. I took a week off, got my widsom teeth out and then got sick, all in all was something like a half month.
I think something like february's 80 hours of flhu a month is good, but in the other 3-4 hours of time in my workday isn't earning me enough. I'm simply not enjoying the learning process as much as when I had an active 6-max study group, a big study card database and a coach to regularly check up on me. Over a large-ish sample I could see and feel the improvement.
I'm gonna be super tight with selecting opponents in PLOHU until I get more confident. I would guess at least 1/3-1/2 of the hands I've played are against opponents who I'm unsure about my edge.
I'm gonna try some 6-max again. I was making some good improvements in the last few months of 2011, I've still got the database and apparently my old skype group is still going strong, I'll play some sessions in the next couple of weeks and decide whether to rejoin them after the BACH™
A couple of non-poker related things
I finished my personal development course and I'm beginning the basic youth counsellor course in three weeks time! It has been really great meeting this new group of amazing people and learning more about myself in the process. Also, it'll be the same group of people and facilitators in this next stage of training so I get to see more of them! Youthline on tuesdays has quickly become one of my favourite nights of the week alongside choir All goes well sometime in Q3/4 I can start taking calls!
Secondly, I've started learning a new language! Mandarin Chinese! I acquired a copy of Rosetta Stone level 1-3 chinese and after several hours working on L1 I am about 7% through that course 
I'm quite enjoying the total n00b phase atm. I've always wanted to be bilingual (at least) so this is the first step towards that. I'm keen to hear suggestions if anyone else has experience with certain language learning programmes. One day down the track I hope to put it to good use when I go on a trip through asia.
Week of the 2nd of April
-Kickboxing or a run 6 days a week
I feel I can almost drop this off the goals now, I feel like trash if I don't do any decent exercise for more than 1 day in a row. The only time I can't fulfil this goal is if I'm sick, but I'll keep it on there as it's fun to tick things off and I'm still working towards getting my warrant of fighting by training every week.
-Warm up before each session with some study cards and briefly reviewing my mid/long term goals to get mentally present.
This was a great way to prepare back when I had quantifiable sessions playing 6-max, it has dropped off after taking up HU but I will try 6max this week so this is important!
-Review hands for 45 minutes at the end of the day
-Mental journal every day
It's important I try and build a profile for what causes my tilt so I can find the best way to deal with it. Didn't feel it so much with 6max but I seem a lot more prone in HU.
-Spend at least 40 minutes a day learning chinese with the goal of finishing level 1 by the end of June
I'm more or less doing this already but I want to keep it up
-Have a dinner party!
-Find a coach who can help me with PLOHU
I don't see a way forward in this game unless I get some guidance
/endgoals
Play well and work hard,
TerrorBlade
2 days till bach ♦
And needless to say, I'm pumped!! You can look to previous posts for some pics from the last trip.
To summarise for the newbies, ~10-14 of us guy friends (this time there is gonna be a wife or two le sigh) take our PCs to a picturesque strip of new zealand coastline and spend a week gaming, swimming, discussing the meaning of life and the universe and generally having a gay old time.
But first, the recent past..
I started writing the weekly goals on a whiteboard instead of updating the post, and it's hanging right on the wall above my PC!
Last Week
It was really great, especially easter weekend!! I went clothes shopping, watched "The Notebook" with two guy friends for the first time and saw the Hunger Games! Also played a ludicrous amount of League Of Legends. I ended up taking easter monday off because it was a public holiday and my friends with office jobs only get 4 weeks of leave a year, so every day counts and also a friends's wife is away this week so we hung out at his place a couple of times ♦ Might go LAN overnight there to get warmed up for the bach tonight...
Poker wise I started some non official goals for this month. I'm not gonna check ANY graphs/results in HEM till the end of april. It was reeeeeeally tough as last week I *think* I ran super-awful-bad at the beginning. I would hazard a guess of at LEAST 100BB if not 150 in one day against uncharacteristically bad opponents. IIRC I had an 80/0/0.5 who I dropped 50BBs to in 70 hands or so who then left the table. Whatever. I like not knowing exactly how bad the damage is, it makes me more determined to simply play more hands to try and get a better looking graph at the end of the month.
PLO-wise I played some good 6-max sessions. I still feel way more comfortable in this game than I do against 80% of my opponents in HU. I have added a new pokerstrategy HUPLO coach to skype but have as of yet received no reply, he's probably on holiday still I still marked that goal off even though I haven't booked a session yet but I feel it's somewhat inevitable. There is only today and tomorrow till I'm off for a week anyway, so I'll just play 6-max for now.
Did I fulfil my goals to the point where I deserve to treat myself with those new headphones? I left the effort towards finding a coach till about thursday which is my own damn fault. If I had gotten on to it monday morning I'm sure something would be set in stone by now, there's no making excuses. I'm gonna wait till after the bach, have a great work week then decide after that.
THIS WEEK..
Is almost over already lol. I'm gonna work but not put goals in here as I've only got 2 workdays. So I guess that's it from me till the 22nd of April, hope you guys have a great couple of weeks. I will be BACK with lots of PIX for y'all.
Take care,
TerrorBlade
Hello friends 
So the BACH™ has come and gone, and this blog post is basically a week late.
The picture documentation wasn't as thorough this time but there are some there that I will post up tomorrow. I love that one of me and chenny and Waiboy's song annotation makes it magic
To tell the truth, spending 8 nights and 7 days away from my usual routine was enough to shift my mindset totally out of wack. On monday I managed to get a grand total of NOTHING done. As in, I didn't simply acknowledge no work would be done and switch up to some side projects like doing some extra chinese learning/go play piano or try finish up ME3, but I spent the whole day bar kickboxing at midday procrastinating.
It was a really weird feeling. I felt myself simply pining for some carefree beach funtimes and outdoor chess interspersed with intense gaming. I love the feeling of really wanting to just smash out some poker for a whole day and I was just massively apathetic.
Tuesday I managed a half day and wednesday was looking to be good but then I ended up stacking off (in FL, yes) a couple of times at my highest limit (30/60) to someone I *think* I should have played, and ended up winning a really small % of showdowns against. I had to pull the plug on that day because I'm not particularly happy about losing 10% of my BR in one short session :[
What I need to do to get the rest of this quarter rolling is just get as many hours as possible at the tables and grind it out, this month has been so casual.
Rest of week was pretty meh and it became obvious not having my whiteboard filled with stuff I need to do made it so easy to slack. I'm about to fall asleep at my keyboard, my goal for next week is to write up my goals first thing tomorrow morning.
Oh yeah, and I've booked a session with pokerstrategy plohu coach Mutardet I'll have to play a bunch this week and make a video. Finally, someone to tell me how bad I am
See you tomorrow,
TerrorBlade
Goals for the Week of 30th of April
-Kickboxing/run 6 days this week
-40 minutes of chinese learning a day, I want level 1 completed by the end of June!
-Make video to review in my first hu coaching session
-Don't check results! (I managed to somehow not check results this entire month. If I let myself do this it becomes compulsive and I need to see them several times a session)
-Rise from bed before 7:30 every weekday
-Pre Session Warmup
-Mental journal every day
Other things
I'm going into week 3 of basic counsellor training at youthline, things are going to get practical and we're looking at how to handle some situations this week.
I was elected onto the committee for the Auckland Youth Choir! Having been singing with them for 4.5 years it's about time I gave a bit extra back.
Let's make it a good week so I can get some shiny new headphones :> Will post some pix later, it's work time.
TerrorBlade
Some pictures from my holiday
No epic pix of the great beach they have down there, we were really slack this time round with photo documentation. I know there are a few chess sickos on these boards that would love to play for hours out there
Small edit: I was gonna post this blog yesterday (still late) and had 80% of this typed up in a text file but then I decided to get something checked out at the doctor and she sent me to the hospital where it took ~7 hours all up to figure out that it was fine for me to go home and I don't need surgery or anything. I missed out on NANDOS because of that! Nandos...
Non poker things
Fitness-wise, kickboxing is going great. I've been getting all these comments lately from various fighters I train with that I should try to go for my warrant of fighting. I think I've got decent power and *ok* technique but my sparring strategy/experience is really lacking and thus I seem better than I am. I try to make it to those classes but the last few weeks I've had something conflicting that I can't miss which sucks, although this saturday I should be able to make it NP.
I feel like I'm well on the way to achieving my goal set at the beginning of the year. At least another month of normal training and then I might consider some private 1on1 coaching to accelerate my learning.
Shit is certainly getting real in my youthline training. There has been a shift away from the theoretical and we're really getting into the implementation of the ideas we have learnt. I'm quite anxious and excited about eventually getting on the phones (as early as july apparently, scary). I relish the challenge and have a feeling this is going to be something really special to me in the next chapter of my life.
I'm somewhat behind schedule on my chinese learning! I slightly underestimated the hours that go into completing chinese level 1. I wanted to finish it by the end of June and I'm 30% through. I estimate I'll hit perhaps 80% by that time. I'm quite enjoying it nonetheless I can understand why it has a reputation for being one of the more difficult languages to learn (from a native english perspective anyway).
Poker
I had my first session with a plo coach (ps.com coach murtardet, also has a blog on here!) which I think went quite well and I managed to take quite a few notes about my play. Way too stuck in my limit mindset of people don't fold turns after they peel the flop, need to plan ahead and follow through more as I usually have more FE than I give myself credit for. Also playing OOP too much (45% defend way too high for someone of my experience). After the session I've felt wayy more confident about my edge vs certain player types, especially the super loose and kinda aggressive ones which I would feel run me over.
Have been watching a few TwiceT plohu vids which are great, so much information in one video I think I have to rewatch them several times.
April was pretty awful overall, low volume and got crushed for 100BB (against this passive limper who c/c down top pair, slightly frustrating :P) at my highest stake at one point which obv. sucks but that's poker. I just want to put in as much plohu as I can, get a positive EV line and start moving up!
Last week was great in that I rose early, got all my fitness stuff done & learnt my chinese as well as booked that crucial first session with the coach. Because I'm a lazy bastard with getting this blog out I'm not getting the headphones yet. When I post this sunday's blog on time I will.
Thanks for reading,
TerrorBlade
Week of the 14th of May
Managed to get to sparring class this week which was great. It was quite small, only 4 people so got some good practice against different styles, got a bloody nose that's still sore and got some tips from people more experienced than I. Had a great dinner party on friday too, life is balanced atm.
Finished Mass Effect 3. I feel like I've been carrying around this fictional "baggage" from the decisions I've made in that game, like a dark cloud, dulling my resolve to apply myself totally to work for a few weeks now and it hasn't lifted. Something about it really drew me in deep. I thought finishing the game would make it go away but it's still there. We'll see how that develops with time, but for now I'll just have to live with those chords haunting my waking life... Kinda itching to start a new game as femshep ^^
Instead I started on "To the Moon". A short indie game about these memory technicians who access the memory of a dying man for the purpose of rewriting them so that he "lived" going to the moon. The music is really good and I was drawn in after an hour at which point the trial ends and I bought the game.
I'm going to see a return to basics this week. Now that I have better confidence in PLOHU I want to grind out a positive EV line and begin moving up when I know I'm a winner. Atm I feel like I'm beating most of the opponents that sit down with me but I soon realise the ones I shouldn't even bother with paying 13bb of rake or w/e.
Goals
-40 minutes of chinese 6 days a week
I found about one day a week where I seemingly couldn't fit this in so put this at 6 days instead to make it more achievable. Learning is going quite well and just overall glad I took the initial steps to start learning this new language.
-Kickboxing/run 6 days a week
I want to maintain my current fitness level and increase my skill so I need to to keep this up. June or July I might work in 1on1 sessions to accelerate learning.
-1on1 catch up with someone and a group activity with friends
If I have a week without this it feels a bit wasted! Can't get complacent.
-30 minutes reviewing interesting spots at the end of the day.
To really get the ball rolling with PLOHU I need to be actively looking for places to get better. It's so easy to play the hands and call it a day but stagnation might as well be backwards progress.
-Schedule a coaching for week of the 21st
Outside PoV is required to spot mistakes in the unconscious incompetence.
-Order those sweet headphones
My sennheiser PC350s have lost their noise isolation ability since my earcups have completely degraded. I hate hearing my noisy PC over my music/gaming and don't like having to turn the volume up ridiculously loud to drown it out. After quite a bit of research it seems the Denon AHD-2000 are some of the best closed headphones out there.
Yours Truly,
TerrorBlade
Hey TB,
I've been reading your blog for what seems like forever yet I've never stopped in. ME3 was a fantastic game. I've actually beat it 3 times and am currently on a 4th playthrough with a femshep sentinal Unfortunately Diablo 3 will probubly put an end to my femshep before the reapers can get thier indoctrination working on her.
I figured I'd ask the master a question while I'm here. I picked up playing FLHU again recently. Its one of the only games online I'm a decent winner at but I've run into a problem. I will be playing a match with an opponent and dealing with them quite easily. I've picked up tells and betting sequences. Unfortunately after I get up 10-15BB and they either tilt or change gears I'm having serious problems knowing when my reads are becoming useless. It seems to be my one big weakness and I dont know how to plug it.
Aside from that the rake is stupid at .5/1 but it does seem easily beatable. Any input would be much appreciated. Also good to hear you have found balance in your life now. I have a job and its stupid hard to get the right balance in my life when 9 hrs is spent having my soul sucked out, 7 hrs is spent sleeping, and at least half of my 8 free hrs is spent with either wife, friends or family. Getting motivated for the 4 hrs of poker time is super hard. I need to find what you've found so I can at least put in some decent volume.
Originally posted by Verre
Hey TB,I've been reading your blog for what seems like forever yet I've never stopped in. ME3 was a fantastic game. I've actually beat it 3 times and am currently on a 4th playthrough with a femshep sentinal
I figured I'd ask the master a question while I'm here. I picked up playing FLHU again recently. Its one of the only games online I'm a decent winner at but I've run into a problem. I will be playing a match with an opponent and dealing with them quite easily. I've picked up tells and betting sequences. Unfortunately after I get up 10-15BB and they either tilt or change gears I'm having serious problems knowing when my reads are becoming useless. It seems to be my one big weakness and I dont know how to plug it.
Aside from that the rake is stupid at .5/1 but it does seem easily beatable. Any input would be much appreciated. Also good to hear you have found balance in your life now. I have a job and its stupid hard to get the right balance in my life when 9 hrs is spent having my soul sucked out, 7 hrs is spent sleeping, and at least half of my 8 free hrs is spent with either wife, friends or family. Getting motivated for the 4 hrs of poker time is super hard. I need to find what you've found so I can at least put in some decent volume.
are you playing on insane mode? i started insane mode as sentinel, played like 8 hrs to still not be able to pass the mars mission, rerolled as engineer and cruised through it.
FLHU at 50c/1$?? FUUUUUUUU
I hope you're table selecting pretty hard there? If I were to guess rake is probably 5+BB/100 or something like that. I know 5/T at a 50c rake cap site is just under 2BB. I think it would be hard to beat anyone aggressive under those conditions unless they're capping air for value against you. Stick to the v tight or v loose passive bads.
With regards to your specific question HU for all games constantly changes throughout the match and the one who is keeping/changing notes and reads better will have a bigger edge. Note that it's possible for some more passive opponents that you've decided "this guy is bad enough to beat" to go on tilt and all of a sudden start playing more aggro and just tougher in general and it's important to recognise when to quit.
I think the fact that you're having trouble with the opponents at 50c/1$ tells me that you're playing against opponents which you should probably avoid.
Actually the games are super soft to the point of there is only 3 opponents I've actually lost money too out of the 50 or so I've played 100 or more hands with. Yes the rake is really stupid high but I'm running at about 5BB/100 even with the rake and no table select.
Of course I'm also marking targets as I realize who the good regs/bad regs/fish/decent players are.
As for the ME3. I actually played all 3 playthroughs on insane. I dont believe in playing video games on any setting but thier hardest. Maybe thats why I like stupid high rake 
I'll move up to 1/2 once I get 500 BB and atm I'm at about 455.
imo you should move up as fast as possible, every hour you spend on a lower stake will hurt a lot in the long run. It's ok to mix stakes aswell, just sit at 0.50/1 and 1/2 and play the guy who is the worst, it makes you used to the higher stakes and gives you a better chance to play against the worst players.
2BB/100 is quite doable btw Terrorblade 
Originally posted by Yoghi
imo you should move up as fast as possible, every hour you spend on a lower stake will hurt a lot in the long run. It's ok to mix stakes aswell, just sit at 0.50/1 and 1/2 and play the guy who is the worst, it makes you used to the higher stakes and gives you a better chance to play against the worst players.2BB/100 is quite doable btw Terrorblade
First of all sorry for jacking your blog it wasn't intended. Thanks for the input Yoshi I didn't know you where still around ♦ I'm going to take shots at higher within reason. If i lose 20 BB I'll build it back up at a lower stake. And I'll table select although its harder at Stars now that all the sites wont let you check your opponents.
Week of the 14th of May
This week has been extremely full on, had something on every single night and a few super late nights threw everything out of whack. Performed last night with the Auckland Youth Choir which was pretty fantastic as always.
Had an amazing time listening to the Auckland Choral Society perform tonight with the Auckland Symphony Orchestra. I'm dead tired so I'll make it quick.
This week wasn't very successful in terms of goals met. I feel my schedule has been too busy to hit certain targets. For example if I've got something at night that takes most of the evening, I prioritise simply playing poker up until that time and sometimes find really stretched to fit in chinese/run and session review.
I feel so much more confident in PLOHU since my first coaching. I hadn't realised how many great vids there were on pokerstrategy as well on the subject, plus it's way more on my level, whereas I get the sense that I'm missing a lot of the content from phil galfond vids.
My biggest problem used to be playing against really loose players who are really active 3b with a high % etc. Also I was playing too much OOP and I've tightened up somewhat in the BB. In january I played 45% blind defense, for may it's more like 35% and I've got the first positive EV graph I've ever had for a month. If this keeps up I can begin shotting 1/2 again yay
FLHU on the other hand has been going pretty bad. Way less action than previous months and I've been running/playing worse I think. I might consider getting a coach to tune me up a bit.
-40 minutes of chinese 6 days a week
4/6
-Kickboxing/run 6 days a week
5/6
-1on1 catch up with someone and a group activity with friends
Nailed this pretty hard. Was so busy I had to miss a dinner party but I went out for dinner last night and tonight with friends which was great
-30 minutes reviewing interesting spots at the end of the day.
3/5
-Schedule a coaching for week of the 21st
Fail, left it way too late again haha, I've left a message with him so hopefully this will happen soon.
-Order those sweet headphones
Managed to win a second hand pair on an auction site, pretty excited about them
I know I say this every time but I'm too tired and it's too late to sort out next weeks goals now, tomorrow morning first thing! I won't change much, I feel I'm on the right track.
TerrorBlade