I currently have a pot of coffee brewing to wake me up. Little forethought has been put into what I would like to include in this post. However with that being said, I assume too much thinking is what keeps me writing in the first place. Knowing I have a prompt (my goals) to go over will make it a little easier to get the juices flowing as well.
*April goals in quotations
“Meditate 2x/day 10 minutes morning and 10 minutes at night”
– While I didn’t come anywhere close to achieving this, I can safely say I meditated more this month than the previous. I would definitely consider that a win. I’ve noticed a little backtracking in the quality of my meditation over these past few months as I don’t really think I can get to 10 breaths without my mind wandering somewhere completely else. I have a lot of thoughts regarding poker and meditation. it’s been on my mind for at least 2 years to write a blog over it.
“Exercise 4x/week
– Still figuring out what I want to do with this. There is a strength and flexibility class close by that is based off of yoga that I am contemplating going to. Plus, may be good to be around more humans irl on a semi regular basis. Mostly, I’ve just done exercise at home that consists of running, push ups, planks. There is a small, but free gym in the apartment complex that I’m in that I have yet to make use of that much. I may decide to use that as well.”
– Exercise stayed somewhat of the same. I have no contacts left and my glasses somewhat broke this month (I even wore tape on them for a week before gluing them back together). So that is sort of keeping me joining any rigorous classes. I’ll be going home around mothers day to collect tourney receipts, and possibly get an eye exam for a new prescription.
“Eat healthy – I’ve been doing fairly well in this department as of late. No worries here”
– I’ve blasted Chipotle pretty hard this month, but at the least have been ordering the most healthy options possible from there. Putting it on the to do list to go grocery shopping tomorrow as it’s just been a bit too long. Probably giving myself a 6.8/10 this month as far as eating healthy goes.
“Do my taxes”
– Procrastinated way hard on this to the point where I tried to gather all my info for it 1 or 2 days before it was due. I think my my procrastination on my taxes caused quite a bit of anxiety in me which therefore caused the psoriasis. I went to H&N Block and the accountant there literally typed with one finger and didn’t have a remote clue about poker/taxes. After I left, I called Russ Fox and snap filed an extension. I feel quite better about the situation and will aim to have my taxes done before WSOP
“Move computer do desk area, go to storage facility and get my office chair
– Computer has been on kitchen table for 8 months or so. I’ve also been on an absurdly bleh chair that isn’t conducive for long hours. I’m sure changing these two would increase my ROI indefinitely.”
– Well I never made it to the storage facility, and to be honest I’m not really sure if a chair is in there. Easy to say that now as Jessica bought me a chair for our 4 year anniversary. It’s easily the nicest chair I’ve had, so that’s a huge plus. Did not quite make it to the desk, but I actually leaning toward keeping my set up at the kitchen table. It has a more open view of the room and isn’t directly facing a wall in a corner…though there may be some benefits to facing a wall so I stay focused on my work.
“Massage 3x this month, therapist 2x, sensory deprivation tank 1x
– Sometimes I procrastinate on getting massages even though I know they are way good for me.
– Have been experiencing heightened anxiety as of late which i’d like to go over some things with my therapist
– SDT is like meditation 10x so that is self explanatory.”
– Never made it out to get a massage this month, shame on me. This sounds super first world problem-ish, but the Massage Envy kept on getting me to sign up for a membership for a year and eventually stopped offering me flexible times that were only available to members. The only other place that doesn’t see beyond sketch is ~20 minutes away. Really though, I need to get a few massages this month.
– Therapy has been good. It’s a shame that there is somewhat of a social stigma regarding going to see a therapist. There are so many benefits to talking out one’s thoughts to an unbiased, I highly encourage anyone who has been considering a visit to act upon it. Also, I’m slightly obsessed with the brain, so talking to someone that is more educated on it than I am is always fun.
– Sensory deprivation tank. Didn’t make it out this month. I originally wrote this in a forum of just a few people (which is why I said a SDT is like meditation, therefore self explanatory). If you haven’t done any research over sensory deprivation tanks, it’s quite interesting. Basically, the water is buoyant, and the temperature is the same as your skin. This essentially robs of your senses and forces you to focus inward.
“Read 30 minutes a day.
– I started reading “Pale Blue Dot” by Carl Sagan during March which I think I should be able to finish up by the end of April. Ideally, reading less than 1 book/month is bad/lazy to me. I think this specific book, as the video I have shared with you all at some point, has a calming affect on me. Saying that it gives one a greater perspective on the grand scheme of things is an understatement.
I picked up “The Mental Game of Baseball” the other day at B&N. I just so happen to see it sitting on display and started thumbing through it. At a glance, I must say that it contains many of the same concepts found in mental game poker material + a bit more. Also, I think pondering the intricacies of one game to another really highlights the importance of the mental game aspect of poker. Even though I don’t like sports, it has been a very enjoyable read and I believe it’l help me a lot with my mental game.”
– Well I didn’t finish “Pale Blue Dot”, but my way of justifying it after the fact is I have been keeping up the “Cosmos” by Neil Degrasse Tyson. For those of you that don’t know, Carl Sagan originally released “Cosmos: A Personal Voyage” in 1980, and now Neil is doing a remake of it. I’m very pleased with it and would like to see more science programs offered to the public. Definitely recommend checking out both these series. I think the first one by Sagan is still on Netflix.
“Blog 2x this month.
-This is something I’ve seriously been slacking on that I aim to change this month.”
– Ship it
“Finish series for tournament poker edge and get it sent in.”
– Done, addressed in previous blog.
“Play 500 mtts online”
– Came up a little short of my goal, but got into the mid 400s. It’s for certain that I ran over EV this month which sometimes (all the time?) causes my volume to lack. With coaching/backing/videos/playing, I stacked a 30k-40k month. Being a MTT grinder in the US, no complaints there.
“Maintain stable
-Involves coaching, completing hh reviews, staying on top of accounting/forums.”
I’ve done an okay job at this in my opinion. Two of my horses have been off the map for personal reasons or grinding live, so that has allowed me more time to spend with one of my newer students. That that student has made a lot of improvements in many aspects of the game, not just the technical side, which is satisfying to see. Accounting has been a little more automated for me with use of my private forums which has been extremely helpful. I need to be better this month about posting on my private forums and TPE forums.
“Watch 7 videos – Likely will be all James Obst, Fedor Holz, and Andrew Brokos”
– I did quite well in the video department this month which isn’t usually the norm. I watched a lot of my old cash game coach Marshall28 who is now making videos on RunItOnce. I watched one or two Sauce videos but to be honest, while watching his live videos, his game and level of play is so far above mine, it’s hard for me to get too much out of them. I watched quite a few of betudontbet’s which are pretty funny and somewhat useful for improving play.
“Study with peers more. Part of why I love coaching and staking is that it makes me fierce about maintaining my own game. However, I think I have seriously been lacking in the area of studying with a few peers of mine that I know would be down to for sure.”
– I think I got in around 3 sessions with different friends over the course of this month which I’m hoping to keep that up (especially with WSOP coming up)
“Keep a to do list – I think this is pretty vital in giving my day structure. This is one of the things that I know is key to productivity and i have yet to do at all this year. I have a journal that I bought for this earlier this year and have not written in it yet. This will change.”
– This did not change. Maybe I’ll give someone a freeroll on doing that like I did my blog. Will be aiming to improve on this throughout May.
“Bed at 2am, up and 9am
– Not sure if this is remotely possible for me, but it seems somewhat doable. Seems like it is fairly optimal in regards to getting non poker playing items completed. My normal is bed at 5am and up at noon, but I feel that many of the last few hours in the day are somewhat wasted.”
This actually got worse. My normal schedule this month shifted to going to bed at 6am and awake at 2pm, hence the coffee at 6pm to wake me up. This may sound degen to some, but I disagree as it’s just “different”. I do a lot of studying and thinking deep in the night and enjoy the solitude very much. However, with my wanting to put emphasis on playing/studying this month, I need to be waking up earlier to maintain a normal balance with everything else going on in my life. It’s really tough for me to turn my brain on, which ideally where mediation comes into play. I’ve been more mindful about implementing certain thing to turn off/relax my brain late at night such as : Turning my phone off, turning computer off, reading, not eating, stop playing poker, temperature drop, and whatever comes up on Google up typing in “how to get to sleep”.
“Accounting – I’m going to try and keep track of every dollar I spend and make this month. This is probably something a lot people either have automated for them or do on a regular basis. I know us poker players are very bad at this. Personally, I have not done anything of this sort in years, nor do I even know how much I’m up per month or per session. I think there are pro’s and cons to this, but it’l definitely be an interesting exercise for me to do this month.”
– Massive failed on this portion and didn’t keep track of anything. I vaguely calculated what my monthly expenses were in my head and that’s about it. Will try again this month.
Overall, I’m pleased with the fact that I had such a successful month monetary wise upon creating some goals, which has often been the case (guess I should do it more). I think this month, the only things I’ll be tweaking on my goal list are that I would like to wake up at 8am, bed at 1am, hang out with friends more, play 550 games.
With all of the above to do and mothers day conflicting, I’ll likely be passing on the New Orleans circuit stop to stay grooving online. I think I’m leaning toward staying at in Vegas for a longer period of time rather than shorter, which will give me plenty of time to get comfortable with live poker again. Last year I had many 12 hour review days with myself and students. I think that is far more beneficial in regards to preparation than playing maybe 300 hands a day live. Also, I find it virtually impossible to focus on anything else life-wise while on live poker stops. Which, this isn’t really surprising given massive amounts of research has gone into keeping people playing while at casino’s. And there right there will be good inspiration for the quote below.
“The key is to keep company only with people who uplift you, whose presence calls forth your best.”
– Epictetus
Given I’m just starting writing this blog again on a regular basis, I would appreciate feedback over anything and everything, but specifically toward some focused articles relating to poker. For example, I have a lot of ideas for : meditation and poker, the function of cognitive dissonance and improving, stochasticity within poker, poker as a drug/addiction, and the list goes on. Really anything I read or listen to, I have a hard time not relating it to poker. Like I’ve stated, it’s quite tough for me to actually choose what to discuss, so if you guys have anything specific you’d like some thoughts on, I wouldn’t mind a little prompting. Gl to those preparing for the WSOP and thank you kindly for stopping by.
-Reasons