As you may have noticed, i haven't updated my blog in months. I have found a new hobby, which has somewhat slowed down the grinding. At least my new hobby is somewhat healthy. To get into shape for football i decided i needed to lose quite alot of weight and improve my fitness, and this coincided with my friend coming to live nearby. He persuaded me to join a gym, and although i have always been into sports, i've probably been in a gym less than 10 times in my life. It just never appealed to me before.

I have since gotten really into it, and its gone the way most of my interests do. I basically try and find out everything about it and get as good as i can possibly can.

I'm still pretty weak, but started off super weak, and my upper body has always sucked. I'm basically doing strength training, roughly following starting strength. The gym i joined at first didn't have much eqipment so i didn't do squat, bench or shoulder press with barbells until i joined a new gym about 7 weeks ago.

I started about 5 months ago weighing about 92kg, and now i'm 87kg (180cm tall). I only actually cut calories after about 2-3 months so losing 5kg is respectable. I'm roughly doing 'leangains' which is an intermittent fasting and working out routine. My first target weight is about 82kg, and i'll probably go lower as being heavy isn't too desirable for a left winger (gareth bale is quite a well built left winger, taller than me and apparantly he only weighs 73kg, but i guess 1 step at a time)

This is where i am with my lifts, and my goals (based on intermediate strength standards from exrx.com)

Deadlift 110kg x5 --> 125kg x5
Squat 70kg x5 --> 105kg x5
Benchpress 60kg x5 --> 77.5kg x5
Shoulderpress 35kg x5 --> 55kg x5

I can almost certainly already do 125kg on the deadlift, just have grip strength problems atm, could only do 3x 115kg before my grip gave out the other day. I've only been squatting for about a month so my squat is kinda in a false position. I have been building up my bulgarian split squat and can do that 60kg x5 so i can obviously do way more on my squat if i wanted to move up really fast.
I'm terrible at benching and shoulder pressing, but slowly improving, so again, not too concerned about my progress.

I'm also doing alot of other exercises. I'm learning how to powerclean which is pretty tough technically, but i'm almost there. I can now do 2 chinups and 1 pullups and about 4 dips, which is a huge improvement from when i started and couldn't do any of them (and have barely done dips for months cos i got a shoulder injury)

I just love any persuit with a learning/improvement curve that is objective so you can follow your progress, plan your goals and then try and reach them.

I'll update at some point, and will put up some before and after pics that hopefully will be fairly impressive.

Finally, for those of you who don't give a shit about weightlifting/fitness, here is a funny hand i came across playing zoom the other day

http://weaktight.com/5165965

I'm giving serious thought to not bothering with HU anymore. I haven't gone off HU or anything, and i'm running ok at it, just on a basic cost/benefit level its quite close.

Ok so i'll just compare sitting down HU on 5 sites at $2/4-$5/10 and then playing zoom while i wait for action, with just sitting down and playing $1/2 zoom.

Hourly

assuming $6.67 average stake for HU.
about 400 hands/hour for HU and a reasonable WR of 6bb/100 gives me an hourly of $160 +rb of around $25/hour for a total of $185/hour.


$1/2 zoom gets about 1k hands/hour with a WR of about 4bb/100 gives me $80/hour + about $30rb for a total of $110/hour.

With the mixed approach i assume a 50/50 split of zoom and HU, which seems reasonable to me.
This gives us a total of $147.5/hour.

Just playing zoom obviously gives us $110/hour, so the mixed approach wins pretty comfortably, also as i'm not actively hunting regs anymore, my WR might well be higher as now i'm just sitting and waiting for action, so the true WR is probably even higher.

Convenience

This really is the forte of zoom, its crazily convenient. If i only played zoom, for one thing i'd only need a $20k roll instead of $100k roll, which frees up funds for other things, and makes it less likely i'll lose alot of money in some FTP style shutdown.

Also, i can sit down and be playing zoom in a matter of seconds, whilst it takes the better part of 10 minutes to set up all my tables for HU. Also, one can stick in little mini sessions of zoom whenever you have time. maybe you are going out with a friend at 8pm, and its 7.40 and you have nothing to do, you can easily play 20 minutes of zoom, wheras it would be impossible to start a HU session in that time.

Finally, you can stop whenever you like instantly, unlike HU where you can be stuck at the computer for hours trying to bust a donk, knowing that if you attempt to run to the toilet and don't post your blinds, the donk will be gone by the time you get back 90% of the time. So no need to have a 'piss bucket' by your computer, and no sessions where you are starving but can't quit.

Stress

HU can be super stressful and obv the swings will be way bigger with a jump up in standard deviation and a huge jump in the total money i could lose in a session. Zoom is a walk in the park, its such low stakes i can just keep grinding comparitively stress free.

Scumbaggery

Although i have quite a thick skin, it is still annoying to deal with the bullshit from other so called HU professionals. Hit and running, grimming, table blocking, and general abuse do take their toll on my psyche to some degree. zoom obviously has none of these problems, you barely interact with other people except playing hands with them.

Fun

Almost forgot about this rather important factor. I pretty much have equal fun playing zoom as i do playing HU, so its probably a tie for me.

Ability to play alot of hours

Again, not for everyone, but for a decent amount of people (definitely me anyway) i struggle to play alot of hours when i'm running hot, and i struggle to play alot of hours when i'm running bad. I can only grind consistently well when i'm running pretty average. When playing HU most of the time you are running good or bad, so its not great for getting in alot of hours. Additionally, the thought of spending 10 minutes setting up all your tables is enough to put you off playing a session fairly often.

Zoom has none of these problems, comparitively tiny swings so a more consistent game and getting in little sessions in the gaps between things i do in a day really add up over the course of a month.

Variety

Mixing it up will obviously lead to more variety, so i'm not as likely to get bored with the mixed approach, wheras playing zoom all day every day might get boring after a while

Achievement/respect/

Outplaying other decent pro's at decent stakes is a great feeling, and i've spent alot of time and effort getting really good at HU, seems a shame to waste it and just turn into a zoom grinder. Of course, i'm not super emotionally invested into poker that i care THAT much. sure its awesome to crush people, and that feeling is way more common in HU, especially as i'm considerably better at HU than i am at 6m. However, i have alot of other interests, and poker has been more of a means to an end for me for a number of years. Also, this argument would be stronger in favour of HU if i was interested in playing HSNL or nosebleeds and really testing my skills against the best players in the world. However, i really have very little interest in doing that simply due to the swings that are going to happen if i tried to do that. I've never been much of a gambler, and i think to suceed at really high stakes you need a little bit of degen in you. the thought of winning or losing 6 figures makes me feel sick.

Thinking about respect, it would be nice to have respect in the community for being a sick HU player etc, but as i outlined earlier, i'm really not that fussed about the poker community. Its great to be a great poker player, but if thats what i'm known for after i die, i'd probably consider my life somewhat of a failure. Besides, i could get some respect at least for doing well in the zoom games if i really wanted it.

Longterm goals

linked with a few other factors, i consider this what i'll likely be doing if i do well and am still playing poker in a year or two's time. In the longterm, i can only really see myself playing 5/10 HU max, or maybe 10/20 at a push. for the reasons outlined above i'm not really interested in HSNL, so my potential to make tonnes more money at higher stakes in the future won't change massively. In zoom if i do well, i'll almost certainly move up to NL500, where i will obviously be making more money, although admittedly at the cost of more stress due to higher stakes and lower winrates.




So, if we summarise all these factors together we see that;

Hourly- Mixed win
Convenience - Zoom big win
Stress - Zoom win
Scumbaggery - Zoom win
Fun - Tie
Ability to play alot of hours - Zoom win
variety - Mixed win
Achievement/respect - Mixed win
Longterm goals - Tie

So mixed wins 3, zoom wins 4, including one big win, and 2 ties. However, its hardly an objective analysis, the weighting of the categories is paramount. Obviously the goal in poker is to make the most money. The categories all have an impact on this, as they influence the two most important categories, Hourly and Ability to play alot of hours. Overall, in an average month i imagine if i played mixed i'd get in about 80 hours compared with about 100 hours of zoom. This makes a monthly total of $12k for mixed, and $11k for zoom, and 20 hours of extra free time if i play mixed.

All things considered, its quite a close decision, and i'd appreciate any thoughts you guys have about the two options.

warning: as far as i know there is no empirical evidence to suggest this results in you becoming awesome

Step 1) Try and be as reality based as you can.

It is suprisingly hard to actually see reality as it really is, and see yourself as you really are (probably is actually impossible). Human's view of reality is continually clouded by cognitive biases (that probably did have benefits for our evolutionary progress, or were at least harmless, but now are detremental). It is worth trying to highlight these biases when you experience them yourself, or see others falling for them. Hopefully with enough enforcement you will stop falling for them so easily and thus become more intune with reality. There is a great stub on wikipedia that lists a tonnes of them

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_biases

Note: i also find it really fascinating


Step 2) Never Lie

I've been doing this actively for quite a few months now as mentioned on my blog before. I probably still do some lying that is so second nature i don't even notice, but i haven't actively lied for the whole period. I was inspired to do this by reading this Sam Harris essay

http://www.samharris.org/lying

While there are benefits to this without step 3, it is step 3 that really makes this an effective way of becoming awesome



Step 3) Big yourself up

Not sure exactly how to say this, but actively announce what your plans/goals are in life, don't hedge your bets or set easily attainable goals. Set yourself up as the perfect person.


What this system will do will set you up to fail continually, and hopefully your ego will ensure you don't fail too pathetically, as you aren't allowed to lie you might actually do what you are supposed to do instead of not doing it, and then lying about it. You set yourself up as the perfect person, who can do no wrong, and then try and live up to the image you created, whilst not being allowed to lie. Hopefully you will eventually become that person.


Lets all try it out and see what happens guys!

hi guys. going on holiday to thailand for most of the month in a few days. pretty motivated to play these days. i played about 30 hours last week so don't owe any coaching sorry about that. playing quite alot this week also so all is good.

don't really have anything of interest to say look for an update in early june. adios

ended up stuck $11k or so for april, my first losing month in 20. you'd imagine that was a kind of brag, having 19 winning months in a row, but its not really. i've been way too lazy, and probably half a dozen of those consist of me playing like 2-3 sessions and calling it a month after winning a bit.

i'm going on holiday for half of this month, and so want to grind like a mofo until i go away.

with this in mind i'm planning on playing 25 hours this week, and go outside every day. i didn't fail at all last week, so unfortunately won't be giving out any coaching.

after moving down to 3/6 i lost 7-8 buyins the first session whilst playing really well.

my internet fucked up on thursday and is still messed up now, so i haven't been able to grind much. pretty lucky i didn't set an hours task this week as i would never have been able to complete it.

i think there is a problem with my router and a new one is on the way from my service provider, if that doesn't work then i will be pretty stumped. weirdly enough, i've worked out that it almost always works perfectly after midnight, although i haven't been brave enough to attempt to play anything other than a few zoom poker sessions.

pretty frustrating to be stuck loads and in the mood to grind but physically cannot play. maybe i should go down the casino every night

i didn't do any exercise this week, i think that whole idea is a bit of a non starter until i have a training partner of some sort. its just so dull jogging or swimming on your own and our weekly football session seems to have died. so this week the only challenge i'm setting is leaving the house every day which seems the most i can manage

i owe 3 hours for my failings this week.

pokerkid gets 2 hours
guitarizt gets 1 hour.

just pm me here and i'll give you my skype and we can sort it out for some time in the future. can't guarantee when cos i only have intermittent internet atm.

Been sick all week, but managed to get in the 18 hours. also left the house every day which was really nice. just chill out and go for a stroll on the beach.

here is the view from my office window btw, basically makes me crazy for not leaving the house much when i'm so close to the beach (the pic in question is when they had a festival there, its not usually that crowded)



i went for a jog, but only once, so i owe a total of 1 hour of free coaching.

Been running pretty bad, and i've failed at my 4th 5/10 shot in a row, so back to 3/6 with my tail between my legs. after being stuck $18k last month and pulling it back to book a win i feel pretty low again being down about $15k

the problem with having to play a set amount of hours is that you often have to grind through when running bad when you'd rather take a breather. my main problem in any case is grinding when i'm crushing, so with that in mind i'll not do a poker wager this week. i'm certain to get in the hours anyway, but i don't want to put pressure on myself when i am vulnerable.

I'm still going to have to leave the house every day, and also i'll up the exercise to 3x. so to summarise there are only 10 hours of coaching up for grabs this week if i fail.

I generated a random number, and 'peten2toms' wins 1 hour of free coaching. just pm me and we can exchange skype details.

i'm sorry Klink, but spamming the comments so much still only counts as 1 entry into the draw, i know you'd kill for some free coaching from me...

finally, heres a fun hand i played. when everything is going bad, you can still get unlimited entertainment from donks

IPoker, $3/$6 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 2 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

BTN: $180
Hero (BB): $793

Pre-Flop: Q Q dealt to Hero (BB)
BTN calls $3, Hero raises to $30, BTN calls $24

Flop: ($60) 2 2 K (2 Players)
Hero bets $24, BTN calls $24

Turn: ($108) T (2 Players)
Hero checks, BTN bets $114, Hero raises to $739 and is All-In, BTN calls $12 and is All-In

River: ($360) 3 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

Results: $360 Pot
BTN showed 6 7 and LOST (-$177 NET)
Hero showed Q Q and WON $972 (+$798 NET)

I'm taking an extended break from making videos, and as the blog software on cardrunners is really tilting, i'm going to be blogging here.

Over the last few months on my CR blog, i've been setting weekly goals, and each hour under the goal i give out 1 hour of free coaching to a random commenter. i will continue it here.

i usually update on monday or tuesday and the week counts from monday-sunday (6am)

i don't bother to provide evidence of my weekly grinding, you'll just have to take my word on it. If it makes you feel any better, a few months ago i pretty much gave up lying after reading this interesting essay by Sam Harris (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Lying-ebook/...3924394&sr=1-1) so you shouldn't get shortchanged.*****

so this week (monday 9th april - sunday 15th april) i will play 18 hours of poker. i will also do 2 exercise periods (defined as anything that is an activity like swimming or playing football) and leave the house every day.******

so the most coaching hours i can give in a week will be 27. I'll give them in 2 hours slots.


****** an interesting byproduct of not lying is that you have to take responsibilty for your actions and attempt to live your life as well as you can. if i don't play poker one day and my gf asks me what i've been up to all day, i can't just take the easy way out and say i played, i have to admit that i've done fuckall all day and get that horrible dissaproving look!

******* just trying to do little things to improve my life. you can get tonnes of little, inexpensive and easy to do things that make a small difference on this excellent blog (http://www.bakadesuyo.com/)
i can't find the exact post but there was a study where people who got up from sitting every few hours were noticeably healthier than those who just sat. So just leaving the house will hopefully make me healthier, even if its only for 5 minutes to take a stroll along the beach.

Hi guys. Sorry I haven't been updating my blog much the last several months. Barely played the last few months and now we are at the end of 2011 and I've played only 500 hours or so this year. I've lost some of the hunger to grind and because of that I've decided to consider other options.

I'll be leaving leggo and joining Cardrunners as one of their pro's. It's a great chance to do something new and exciting. I'll be doing videos for them and also coaching, I'm already much more excited about poker and looking forward to a very interesting and hopefully profitable 2012.

I'll still be grinding the 3/6 and 5/10 HU games but with making Cardrunners videos and coaching too it should be a fuller schedule than 2011. I used to work so hard when I was studying at university and when poker was new and fresh, so hopefully the new challenge will spur me on to working more like I used to.

I made $85k or so in 2011, which is reasonable as I played so little and also cashed out most of my roll earlier in the year and so logged the most hands at 1/2! I would have been pretty disappointed with $85k at the start of 2011 so hopefully my tally at the end of 2012 won't disappoint!

So bye bye Leggo, and hello Cardrunners. If you enjoyed reading this blog, I'll be updating it regularly on Cardrunners from now on.

finished 7 hours short, so $700 to kiva.org.

not a terrible month considering i had a failed 5/10 shot (see if you can spot it on the graph ), hopefully will be back at 5/10 next month at some point


In other news, just going to not bother playing 6m anymore ever really.

i know variance is a factor, but for reference, this is my 6m graph for the year



and here is the HU graph



alot of 6m is me not feeling like grinding properly, so i just cop out and play NL200 6m, complete waste of time


plan for october same as for september. 70 hours, $100 per hour under my target going to kiva.org