100k and Beyond

sounds really good , following on your Journey! Keep updated on weight loss goals, consistency , diet etc. I'm on similar boat floating between 95-100kg muscular but got fat , really now want find motivation to get to healthy 85kg-90kg range.

Welcome to Pokerstrategy

Interesting post, good luck. I'm curios to see how you do. ♠_thumbsup:

Originally posted by Nick12

Why this blog:
I struggle with my mindset at times quite a bit, especially with consecutive losing days. I always fear that this month is gonna be terrible, I will be losing money and my poker journey is ending even though in ~18months I never had a single losing month when focused on grinding the only exceptions were May 2023 where I shot took nl1000 6max and lost 7BI and ended the month -1.3k and this month where I solely focused on improving 6max. I started working with a therapist a few months ago to also work on this.

Same here, except that as a MTT player I had many losing months, very often a few in a row.. yes its hard and affect the game as well. Would be interesting if you could share some of your progress with therapist.

BJJ is great for sure, my friend is a black belt and he coached me but to be honest, I like some punches and prefer Jujutsu.

btw with 190cm, 90-100kg should be cool so I'd try to keep around it, maybe just build some muscle mass if needed.

Good luck!

Welcome to the community! Interesting opening post

Originally posted by Nick12
I started training and losing weight April 2022. I started with 119kg at 190cm and now made it down to 99/100kg.
I started fighting BJJ (Brazilian jiu-jitsu) in October last year and fell in love with it. When fighting, when getting choked, submitted not being able to breath. You name it..I cant help but smile since I love it so much.

Haha I never heard that. Glad you like it

First update:

Hours played this month: 70h (most hours came from playing zoom nl50 very focused which I treated basically as study)
Hours studied: 20h
Profit: -674€

Networth: 35.908€ (-3167 includes losses in poker and money spent)
Weight loss: -0,64kg
Current average weight: 99,69kg

Pretty expected results, definitely lacking some hours even though I went on holiday.
Very happy with my expenses, the are on averagy every month 2.3k and even include 3 therapy sessions for 120€ (85€ after reinbursement from insurance). I always spent roughly the same amount.

Bjj also doing fine, was complimented by a purple belts (white-blue-purple-brown-black) which is a very high belt and takes roughly 4-5 years to achieve.
next competitions are coming up in september which i am evry excited about, weight is also doing very well and I still live comfortably meaning I dont feel like I am cutting
Poker wise we ran very bad in Plo and lost about 10 BI in 3k hands but still learning a lot and its totally normal variance. I just really have to pay more attention to rake on some sites since that can be really killing. But very happy with the progress

Originally posted by CheckMate

Originally posted by Nick12

Why this blog:
I struggle with my mindset at times quite a bit, especially with consecutive losing days. I always fear that this month is gonna be terrible, I will be losing money and my poker journey is ending even though in ~18months I never had a single losing month when focused on grinding the only exceptions were May 2023 where I shot took nl1000 6max and lost 7BI and ended the month -1.3k and this month where I solely focused on improving 6max. I started working with a therapist a few months ago to also work on this.

Same here, except that as a MTT player I had many losing months, very often a few in a row.. yes its hard and affect the game as well. Would be interesting if you could share some of your progress with therapist.

BJJ is great for sure, my friend is a black belt and he coached me but to be honest, I like some punches and prefer Jujutsu.

btw with 190cm, 90-100kg should be cool so I'd try to keep around it, maybe just build some muscle mass if needed.

Good luck!

For the weight: I feel very comfortable with 100kg and would love to stay there, however when I am fighting I am fighting in the open end weight class which means I will be fighting 150kg guys however when i am cutting down to 75kg i will only be fighting guys that are ~94-97.5kg so for cutting 2kg more which is a small effort at this point I am gaining a massive pay off.
Concerning the therapy, it hard to really share a lot since it goes very deep and i am still trying to see the change myself since it is something that mostly other people tell me that I improved in some aspects. However something I can share is that I struggled a lot with poker losing sessions and I always thought I had a bad mindset. I still struggle with them but its been getting easier. Turns out it was never a true poker issue but I amde the connection from "I was left out a lot as a kid -> I was not good enough as a person -> I need to become better -> Poker is a big part of my life and somethign I can get better in-> I lose in poker -> It feels I am getting worse -> It feels I am getting worse as a person -> Irrational fear comes up that i will be losing friends/family because became worse." SO in this cycle poker was never the problem. its just unlucky that losing is a natural part of poker and I need to stop the cycle in the middle and projecting my worth as a person onto shortterm results.
I am for sure not "cured" but its getting better 1% at a time

Originally posted by H0witzer
Welcome to the community! Interesting opening post

Originally posted by Nick12
I started training and losing weight April 2022. I started with 119kg at 190cm and now made it down to 99/100kg.
I started fighting BJJ (Brazilian jiu-jitsu) in October last year and fell in love with it. When fighting, when getting choked, submitted not being able to breath. You name it..I cant help but smile since I love it so much.

Haha I never heard that. Glad you like it

Yeah its a crazy feeling to fight and to withstand what your opponent is doing to you, it feels so primal but so right at the same time. Fighting is exciting me in a way I never thought anything could. It just feels right in my bones in my body and my soul and its beautiful because you try to kill each other but are buddies before and after

Edit: tried various things to post graphs but cant since "With your current user-status you are not allowed to post external links.".
Anybody knows how I can post them ?

Drop the link and i will post it for you

Only way to post it yourself is to become a bronze member or higher.

The easiest way to get a bronze status you can use 1 or more of our free money offers on poker rooms you don’t have an account yet. If it you already have signed in for a room you need to read the instructions well and it can take up to 2 business days before you get the free money. If that's not a option you can buy a status-upgrade.

Good luck with you're blog

Cheers,
SDK1987

Awesome, HU and PLO are some very exciting formats.
I feel you regarding tournament variance. During my pro years I had an insane volume, grinding 60 - 80h/ week, 16 tabling and still on average 3 losing month / year. Yes overall profit was awesome but these months were the worst and if I had two consecutive losing months my mental state wasn't the greatest at the end of it either.

Would love to see some PLO and NLHE HU hands analysed from you.

Good that you include health in your journey to success. I truely believe if you want to make it long term as a poker pro, you do need at least some balance and a health focused live (as much as that's possible if you put in a lot of grind time).
GL at the tables.

Update:

Hours played: 26
Hours studied: 4
Profit: 1600€
Current Weight: 99,6kg
Weight loss: 0

In terms of poker the week started well with volume but then dropped hard. I found a really circle of friends via BJJ which is something I have been looking for for a long time. We do lots of cool stuff that I am so happy about. Sunday for example we held an open mat at Donauinsel which means there were some mats, about 50 people and were fighting shirtless in the sun next to the water which was absolutely beautiful. I love whats happenign right now. I strgulle a bit to find the balance between work and summer time whihc is something I currently dont mind too much since expereiencing a summer like I have now has been one of th most important things for a long time. As long as work doesnt drop too much I am decently happy.
In terms of profit I ran really well in PLO, ran pretty bad in HU NLHE, nothing more to say here

For weight loss it was a tougher week since I only trained wednesday and yesterday (sunday) and I dont count todays weight for last weeks average.
I should be on a good way towards the 97.5kg but I am slowly really sick of cutting weight, Its like month 15 or so now haha

Originally posted by TheGrindChronicles
Awesome, HU and PLO are some very exciting formats.
I feel you regarding tournament variance. During my pro years I had an insane volume, grinding 60 - 80h/ week, 16 tabling and still on average 3 losing month / year. Yes overall profit was awesome but these months were the worst and if I had two consecutive losing months my mental state wasn't the greatest at the end of it either.

Would love to see some PLO and NLHE HU hands analysed from you.

Good that you include health in your journey to success. I truely believe if you want to make it long term as a poker pro, you do need at least some balance and a health focused live (as much as that's possible if you put in a lot of grind time).
GL at the tables.

Yeah MTT´s (short for tournaments) is like hell for the mental sanety, Ithink it takes a special kind of person to grind those, Having losing months is something nobody that is outside poker can relate to. Its like telling them they worked their hours and at the end of the month they have to pay their boss. Its sick thinking about it.

Health wise I agree with you, I think it is somthing that was truely undervalued but its gaining popularity now. Just looking at live tournamnets 5-10 years back compared to now is crazy. Most pros used to be fat but now in order to become better than the competition they also focus on health.
I personally dont plan to stay in poker too long, I just dont like it too much but I am too deep to quit now, so might as well get something more out of it. Was mentioning today to somebody that looking back I would tell my 18yo self to play poker part time but not pursue it as a carreer. I jsut realized over the last months or so that poker was always a fake passion for me and I was even asking myself if I wastd my life with it.

For analyzing hands, I gotta say there is not much to it for me.
I 90% go by how my opponent is playing. If he is passive I play 98% of hands because I know he will let me realize my equity and then I steal river vs his air.
Just like that I have a gameplan for all types of opponents and thats how I decide what to do with my hands

Update: Week 3

Poker hours: 36h
Profit/Loss: 1350€
Current Weight: 98,79kg
Weight loss: 1kg

Poker Wise the Week was very swingy. Started on a big heater and upswing then had a very tough time the last 2-3 session where I struggled a bit. Ran really really poorly there and went broke on 1 site whcih was particularly annying because I was down 3-4 Buy ins on PLO200 vs a huge donator but could not keep playing because of funds. I always thought 4BI ona site for PLO is enough I will now go up to 5BI minimum. SOmeitmes its hard because I need to distribute my Bankroll on many dfferent sites, combined with the big short term variance in PLO I can add some annoyances, but we´ll take care of it.
Lost around 7BI the last 2 days and ran in PLO 5Buy ins at PLO200 under EV (aka running under expecatation meaning if luck were not a factor I would have won 5 Buy ins more basically). In Holdem I also ran quite bad the last few day, had some good nl500 tables which I didnt fully play. They are the highest limits where I also have to play vs regs and I only play them when I feel really well. Next Steps on increasing my income will be to study and play a bit more 6max again to gain more confidence, with all the HUPLO action I negelcted 6max a bit and it was showing in my mental performance. It´s harder than I think to mentally stay sharp in 3 different games. I keep studying HUPLO finishing the "Galfond Course" and looking to move to PLO400 soon. PLO600 I really dont know yet, depends on the action I get there and if I can ahndle the variance since losing 5BI in a session is extremly easy. The tough part comes from the fact that there might be a lack of action. On PLO200 if lose 5BI I know I get lots of action soon, on 400 and 600 if you lose 5BI you might not get action for the whole month again. So PLO200 is actually more profitable and less variance, but I defnely wana give it a shot and see for myself. The Ideal scenario would be to max out the limits on every format I play. HU: 400/600 6max: 500/1000 HUPLO 400/600. I dont go beyond 600 because there is really never any action but with maxing out every stake it migh be worth another try. ATM I enjoy the constant action moving to the highest stakes that are regualrly available like 1k in 3 different formats might still give some action. In the head it feels more profitable but if there is too little action lower stakes are actually mroe profitable and less variance which is what I am doing now. After I max out on all the formats I am looking into learning PLO 6max too.
Right now I have so massive action as I didnt have in a long time which also made it tough to put in longer hours so gotta find a solution for that. Yesterday I did 12h but with a break so that might be a solution lets see.

Weight:

Had a really bad mental day I think on thursday or so since weight just wasnt dropping and I couldnt get below 99kg for months now, but friday was a huge drop nd since then I consistently see 98.xx kg. Probably because I was loaded on carbs and had lots of water stored while still eating in my weight loss calories. So ~1kg to go which can hopefully be done in 2 weeks. THat would be really nice timing since I expect to gain some weight when Is tart going up with calories again and 4 weeks out to competition is a nice timeframe to setlemy weight and experiment.
I am currently on week 51 of tracking in my excel sheet and + 16 weeks of tracking since I started with weight loss so 67 Weeks total of tracking calories. Obviously not everyday, had and still have my downs when I dont track which I always dispised a lot and felt like I dont have discipline because discipline for me is doing somethign everyday without fault. Nowaday I still see how I feel like hat, just less, I still feel I dont have discipline; I want something like getting in shape but I am not disciplined. Maybe this perfect discipline is just an illusion and oyu hear from pros in varies sports how they do something everyday or like at the sam 6 days a week for years but its just not true and this social media or hollywood illusion. Even though I still feel lots of stress with cutting weight its more the stress of finally wanting it to end and not the stress if things are working or not, since I have been losing weight consistently for now 67 weeks whatver I am doing is working for me, and reminding me of not needing to be perfect but accepting what I am doing works whatever that might be on a daily basis because on any given day when I am afraid of destroying my progress by doing X or Y is somehing I have for sure already done in the previous 67 weeks and I still ended here.

Late update this Week:

Update: Week 4

Poker hours: 21h
Profit/Loss: 1050€
Current Weight: 98,51kg
Weight loss: -0.2kg

Poker wise it was a slow week, little action and little hours put into poker.

Weight wise it was a somewhat frustrating week due to slow progress, but progress is progress and we are close to the finsihing line.
Energy is very low the last few days unfortuantel. Furthermore monday at sparring I fucked my back a bit and was out for 2 days but its nearly fully recovered now. It didnt help the mood or frutration haha
Was a very short update this week but longer ones gonna come again.
Take care

Just felt like writing a random update after one of my most stressfull sessions in a long time.
Started the day off winning 2 Buy ins on nl400 HU which is very rare because action is extremly low there.
Starting the session of with 2 buy ins at your highest stake feels incredibly since you still have the whole sesison in front of you and endless potential, you start palying with imaginary profit numbers in your head what could be.
Then I got a huge donator at plo200 and I win like 5 buy ins there so suddenly I am up ~2000€ for the day, incredibly!
Out of nothing the donator is on his last money and he wins back everything and then leaves. Now you feel terrible, you felt everything was for nothing but at least you still won like 200 o so from him. you remmeber the rake and now find out you actually lost money while playing him and you are let with a very devasted feeling after still being up like 1000€ or so for the short session.
I take break to get my first food at 9.30 pm, feeling devasted, hungy, hangry tired and all the above because I could not get food due to playing this donator for hours. I get some food and recover.
I open tables agin, action is low but I win ome buy ins here and there feeling etremly good again because hey I can be a huge day after all!
Suddenly I got 4 tables on 1 site out of nothing. I close everythign else since I am down to end the session after ~8h.
I win some buy ins at those 4 tables feels insane but out of nothing everything turns. on Between nl100 and nl200 I lost about 6 buy ins in 1h or so. I get set up over set up in HU.A fish starts playing me at nl100, runs his 25€ up to 125 and leaves, he comes bak atnl200 and runs 125 up to 250, he comes at the nl300 and there runs 75€ up to 200, he comes at nl400 and runs 100€ up to 300€. It just felt...terrible.
I have not felt that bad in quite some time at the tables. I hate that I think about money too much even though its not often. I dont think I will ever get rid of it an days like these are literally in the job description about poker.
I still ended day in decent profit (I never check so can just guesstimate) and its something nobody in any other job then poker will ever be able to understand how devastating and defeated it can feel sometimes even though you made "good" money. In poker we always say to focus on decisions, not the chips, not the money, not the result, but sometimes you do feel it, sometimes you are human and sometimes you really suffer for the greater good, for your later life and sometimes its a lot,like really a lot and you question yourself why you feel that way because it doesnt make any sense, its part of the game, its part of your job and carreer and its not logical to feel that way even though poker is a game where you need to control your emotions to beat it and then you suffer, you feel bad and are full empotions after session and you ask yourself why you cant better control because thats what you should be able to do, you ask yourself why you feel that way even though you know those days are gonna happen. You feel like this day had once in a lifetime opportunities with the opponents you faced, the money to make and you feel its never gonna happen again. You see everyday and every session as a single unit while every pro on the internet is saying that "its one long session" and it makes you feel even worse becasue those other pros that are publicly saying those things feel so much superior because aparently they never feel that way. But you know its BS. You also know the feeling you are feeling right now is BS.The moeny you could have made doesnt change your life a bit, nothingggg would have changed wiht this one day until you start thinking what you could have done,lived or bought with ti. But thats the only thing that you are never allowed grant perission into your mind, doesnt matter how extremly shit you feel, how defeated and broken you feel in those moments, thats the thought that can never enter your mind because thats what really seperates us from others that try to do the same

Update for the month: (month 2)

Poker hours this month: 127h
Profit: 9826€

Networth: 42.940€ (+7031€ includes profit in poker and money spent)
Current average weight: 97,94kg
Weight loss comapred to previous month: -1,75kg

Poker:

I never expected the month to be that big. its my second ever 10k month. My first ever 10k month was in November 2021 with HU only (nl100 and nl200). A few months after Hu aciton got less and less and despite moving up I was never able to recreate it again.
Even though my poker hours were pretty lazy, I had non stop action wiht HU PLO. Before playing HU PLO in a 10h session I usually had 5h of dead time waiting for opponents, so it was much easier getting in hours. With PLO in 10h I play 9h, usually 2-4 tables of HU which is extremly exhausting.
I was very suprised with the result since it was summer, I didnt play too many hours and my main game being holdenm HU didnt have good action. I made maybe 2k on stakes higher than nl200 I would say, the rest came from plo200.
Really curious what winter will bring which is usually the prime time for poker and also very curious what months will bring where I put in good hours.
The month is also pretty special for me, because in my previous 10k month, everything stayed in my Bankroll so the money was not "real" but nowadays everthing is mine and can be used privately.
I had costs of 2.6k this month which as suprisingly a lot more than usual, I always replentish my bank account to 10k and the ret of the money I distribute with 10% increasing my emergency fund because why not, 85% being invested in dividend stocks and 2 ETF and 5% going in other investments.
Planning to go on a huuuuggge shopping spree tomorrow and buying all kinds of stocks. My portfolio currently only holds ~1k and now over 5k are being put into it which I am extremlyyyy excited about!

Weight:
With the blog I was able to look back 1 whole month for my weight. Its new for me sine I usually only look at the previous week and dont see the bigger picture. Last week was by accident a low carb week so I naturally weight less. Curious what this month is gonna bring on scale. Really ncie to see the progress, especially since I stuggled quite a bit mentally. Still cant wait for the cut to be over haha

I really like reading your blog, It's interesting to see how a player like you evolves, in poker and in life. Any progress related to weight is a step in the right direction. GG and keep it up.

Are you playing any tournaments lately or only HU?

Hey this looks nice. I'm also curious to see how this journey will go. Seems like you most certainly know what you're doing. Mindset can be rough especially in those losing streaks. I believe it's a good idea to start a blog here for that reason as there are some really nice people here and we all can relay to what's that like.

Anyway wishing you the best of luck with all your poker and non poker related goals!

Update Week 6:

Poker hours: 25h
Profit/Loss: 1200€
Current Weight: 97,33kg
Weight loss: -0.61kg

Poker:

Usually at the start of the month I take a few days off, recharge and spend time with whatever come to mind. After jumoping back into the aciton we had 2 good sessions followed by my worst one today where we lost ~10BI on Plo 200 vs a donator. Happens still feels not great but its ok. The BR is there, the finances are there everything is cool. I also started playing HUPLO400 2 days ago which took me a bit to get used to but I feel ok so far. This month I really wanna push out of the comfort zone and right into fear concerning the stakes I am playing. SO given that 10Buy ins on Plo200 are equivilant to 5Buy ins on plo400 its whatever, jsut takes some time getting used to. SOmething I also always struggle with is accepting and seeing how far I ahve come in poker and my earning power. Few years back when struggling with tournaments (mtt´s) I often dreamed of havin a 10k Bankroll and then woke up, this somehow fucked wiuth me to this day that I cannot realy accept that its real how far I have come. WIth my age (27) I reached a very high earning power which I am super proud of but still cant realize I am here. I now wanna push the stakes all in good bankrollmanagement since there is so much untapped potential for my income if I can get used to the stakes. I am obsessed with progress and unfortunately still project progress to daily session results but I do try to put it somehwere else. This month the progress really comes from accepting the bigger money swings and not avoiding them, its porgress to sit the higher stakes tables and not avoiding them. This month its really about pushing things and seeing whats acutally possible if I tap into the fear instead of being comfortable and being complacent with my current income.
Especially with investing being my passion (I invest 90% of my money after covering expenses) every 1€ that I can earn more is exponentialllllyyy more worth. Being able to invest 1k or 1.5k or 5k to 6k etc makes sucha crazy difference, so every 1€ that I can earn more is insane value. I actually did the calculation. I love to invest in dividendn paying ETF because I love cashflow and I love the consistency of it when my job already offers crazy variance. My current portfolio is 6000€ and pays 3,29% net after taxes.
If I invest 100€/month with 3,29% interest over 10years I end with 13942€ (12000€ invested + 1942€ in dividends)
If I just invest 1€ more each month I end with 14081€ (12120€ invested + 1961€ in dividends)

Thats amazing to me what just 1€ more can accomplish. Now we project and income increase for my situation.

Assuming I invest 3k/month I end with 418k (58k in dividends) but If I can scale my income and being able to invest 4k/month I end with 557k (77k in dividends) after 10 years. SO I simply have 140k more.
I defnetly wanna invest more than 3k but I do wanna wait a few months to see where my income gets me since a 10k month might jsut be a fluke, lets see. basically every cent that I can afford is going into investments, to receive monthly dividends. Its just amazing to me that I buy money.

PLO: So far since I play Huplo again (6weeks) I ahve 15k hands with a winrate of 14 EVBB/100 which I am happy with but I will try to increase it more. I consider 15k hands an ok sample but will see after we hit 20-30k hands for more accuracy.
So far we are running really bad with 20BI under EV, whicccchhhhh however means at some point we gonna run insannneeee. Maybe I decide to take some PLO600 in next month, which would be super nice to get the run good there ♦
Plo600 however really depends on how many swings I wanna have in daily life. 400 to 600 is not a great difference tho, however also with plo400 I start considereing to increase the Bankroll since I play on like 15 different sites so every site only has the minimum needed. If I wanna increase the Bankroll, it means that I probably have to play 1-2 months without cashing out to be more comfortable which I am not sure If I am willing to do that, but lets see what the future brings when I get used to Plo400

Weight:
The weigh ws extremly low (down do 95,5kg) at the begnning of the week where I put most focus on traning and I ahd 2 days where I was fightiong 3-4h each day and then doing 1h on the bike. The enxt days due to water wieght my weight was extremly low. After the weight settlet in the last few days I still do see low 97 and high 96kg fairly consistently and each and every week for the last 6 or so weeks was progress in the right direction

.

Originally posted by mariussica88
I really like reading your blog, It's interesting to see how a player like you evolves, in poker and in life. Any progress related to weight is a step in the right direction. GG and keep it up.

Are you playing any tournaments lately or only HU?

Thanks for the feedback! Will see to get a bronze subscription soon to post some graphs
I only do play cash games, really not into tournaments anymore. I would say 90% of my volume is HU and the rest 6max. After last month and seeing how much action I can get in HU PLO I will probably go all in on PLO and really focus my attention there. I really like slayerfan1 approach, he always switches formats to go where the most money is. Currently he is playing 5card PLO, which I will porbabyl tap into very soon so I can add in some 5card PLO HU too

.

Originally posted by FriskyArt
Hey this looks nice. I'm also curious to see how this journey will go. Seems like you most certainly know what you're doing. Mindset can be rough especially in those losing streaks. I believe it's a good idea to start a blog here for that reason as there are some really nice people here and we all can relay to what's that like.

Anyway wishing you the best of luck with all your poker and non poker related goals!

Gl you too on your journey!
Yeah mindset can be tough in poker, it just tricks you into thinking emotionally and not seeing the real picture. It tricks us into believeing we are worse and it tricks losing players into believing they are better. Especially in HU this is a qutoe I try to focus more and more on. If I lose like today 10BI to 1 donator, he is porbabyl gonna come back because he believes he palys super well

Do the poker hours contain study time or just playing time?
Nice blog btw def following!

Update Week 7-8

Poker hours: 45h
Profit/Loss: 400€
Current Weight: 95,58kg/98,25kg week 8
Weight loss:

Poker:
I didn’t update last week since I had an important real world situation that really hit my stomach and forced me to take action and solve it. I am still not completely over it but things are looking better. I was mentally very much not doing well that day and also the next few days took its toll on me.
Poker wise things have been going very very slow, I am still running extremely bad this month with 25? Buy ins under expectation and action ahs also been rather low. Might be a fluke with the action but let’s see.
My studying is currently at HUPLO with the focus of looking at 3 specific opponents that I just keep losing against and figuring out why and how to beat them. I for sure ran very bad vs them but I also did not have a strategy that was very well developed. I am currently working on the second opponent who gives me kind of headache but wants to play me regularly. Starting hopefully next month – depending on the HUPLO progress- I will look into plo 6max. For the most part its to be future proof. Heads up, doesn’t matter if NLHE or PLO, are both declining with more and more sites getting rid of it. Few days a friend was asking if site X was closing and even though HUPLO action is good, it made me realize that I use the same sites for NL and for PLO. I invested quite some money in coaching and also time for learning 6max NLHE since my close poker circle is making ridic. Money in that, however I just don’t like it. Yesterday I got to thinking again. I know for some time now that I actually don’t like poker and the fear of losing months is very much a byproduct of that. Knowing I just “sacrificed” 1 month and then lost money aka I am not getting any closer to being able to switch careers or going to the next step in my life, sucks. The longevity of poker in my hand is just not given …because I don’t really enjoy it. It’s a means to end, a way to really build my financial life. My old teacher Ben(cb) posted something lately in which he mentioned that one of negative things or the things you sacrifice is consistent income. Paired with a video from kevin o'leary where he says something along the lines of "A salary is something they give you to forget about your dreams. Its very easy to stay there because somebody is managing your risk" made me think. I want consistent income because the world is working monthly aka rent, gas etc etc. but everybody that has a big financial life, has inconsistent income. Most people that really make great money, really have built a life (solely speaking finically here) work on a yearly salary and not monthly. It´s a different world but it has become standard for me to rely on a monthly salary, I expect monthly consistent income with a great financial future, they just don’t match. The standard should become a yearly income view. I am not quite there yet financially because I still need to cash out money, I love manging my investments and bank accounts so I do it monthly, but I think there is this little “aha” moment there which we will see if I can put into my head. It would really change a lot, because suddenly a losing session is whatever because you have 150 days or whatever “left”, you suddenly develop a way more long term view. A beginning would be to see it Bi-monthly, my finances could handle that and mentally it would also be ok. Its something where I can not say what will happen in the future but lets see. Back to topic ; If I now add more and more 6max NLHE which I enjoy even less into the mix its not getting any better (I still paly it if the table is good to not have the investments go to waste and being able to sit and play a game decent when there is a huge fish is still awesome, its just not the future proof I want. It might be in terms of €€€ but not in terms of head) That why I will start with PLO 6 max. I am also debating on PLO 5card 6max since it gives me a new game for Heads up as well, but I am not sure yet if I feel comfortable playing it full time with the absurdly crazy variance, however that’s probably where the biggest money lies and the enjoyment is also more than in NLHE because its just more fun. PLO5 card 6max is also more future proof than PLO4 card 6max and I generally wanna go wherever slayerv1fan is going because he is always going to the format where the most money lies.
More fun in my job is essential for my future.

Weight/BJJ:
Training was scarce the last 2 weeks, last week because of miscommunication with my coach for 1:1 tho. Last week was also very heavy in social gatherings with 4 very big feasts and some alcohol, which is why the weight drastically went up, but its only gonna be temporary. The tournament is next Saturday I need to be 97.5kg which should be good unless some very hard consequences from last week hit which is not out of the question. Currently I am on my hardest cut yet with 2000kcal/day and maying out on sport whatever is possible with poker. Its very hard, I feel quit tired and mentally even though I just consume 200kcal less its quite gruesome. However, I do it to have a buffer in case late consequences hit and also to up to 2500kcal in the week before the fight to feel at least a bit more energized. I will do it on lower cards tho, since I expect my weight to go up drastically when I increase calories and when I do it in carbs, its probably gonna get much higher. Its my first time actually needing to make weight since I was usually fighting in the open end category, so I will learn quite a bit from it and be able to adapt more in the future. The plan is not set in stone since I guess I will need to be flexible.

Other:
I really struggle with spending money. Partly because I never feel secure enough and need way more security than other people which I have come to accept since its no shame. I think it comes from the deeper fear of not being able to comprehend what I have achieved and that its still a dream how far I have come in poker or in the many aspects of life in general – apartment, relationships, poker, fitness. Many of them are already there or on the way to what I was dreaming of, wishing for and working for. I worked for every one of them which makes it even more special to me. The other side comes from the fact that I buy money with my money aka investing. If I can buy 103€ with 100€ why would I ever buy anything else before my investments can pay for my things. It just doesn’t make sense to me. I think both are valid points in a strictly logical world, but it completely ignores the emotional side of life. Experiences, memories and fun. You don’t need money for those things, but money can create many more. Some people are addicted to buying and always find a way to justify why a purchase is legit, while I kind of face the different side, I always find reasons why I purchase is not needed. Which is not a a big problem and I am kind of happy I face that “problem” but it still hinders me to experience life a little more. So once every blue moon I like to go on a all paid trip with my GF because I like to feel the power of money. Last year which was the first pof its kind I invited us to fly to paris for a weekend just to watch doctor strange 2 in the biggest cinema in Europe, which was an incredible feeling. All of those paid experiences of that kind have a special place in my heart because -they represent for me how much further I have come and show me why I am pursuing the financial life I am pursuing. From year to year I try to make that one experience bigger to represent my progress. I even feel they are important to me in a way of developing my life, it “forces” me to spend money and experience something I always wanted to experience. That’s why I also like it to be a paid trip, it would not be the same if I do 50/50. Those trips are special events where I am going to, where I wanna know that I created that moment for myself and for us, that I created an experience a “normal financial” life would not be able to provide because its something crazy. Paris last year was something a normal financial life would be able to create, but I wanted it to be crazy and the core idea to be ridiculous while still being something that I really wanted. Flying somewhere just to watch a movie. It’s the life I wanna create. I want to create this crazy life where you fly somewhere just to have dinner because its fun, to go somewhere for a movie, to rent castle because it would be cool. That’s what life is about for me and that’s what those special experiences mean to me and my life. It’s a realty check that those random numbers have meaning in the real world.

Originally posted by Fredjen
Do the poker hours contain study time or just playing time?
Nice blog btw def following!

Thx! Poker times contain study times atm

I know the pressure of journaling of personal progress and accountability related to it is quite hard.

I have had one and seen similar blogs on private forums .

By all likelihood your going to have times of killing it and times of it killing you.

If these are poker defined then luck will dictate it 100%.

Reporting / wringing is very nice however big part of poker is you don't control results