I'm back

Well I'm pretty low key usually so you might not realise I was gone or remember who I am, which is fine. I've been a part of this community since the very beginning and it has now been 6 years since I've played poker professionally. It sounds insane when I put it into words like that, that's the majority of my adult life! In the earlier years my life was really unbalanced and all about poker, which was fine for a time until it inevitably stopped being fine. Probably in the past couple of years I've felt that isn't the best way to live life, and especially in the last ~14 months made an effort to change it up. I don't wanna ramble on too much about that cause I don't want this to turn into some emoblog, so the main cliffnotes I guess are I put travel and exercise as higher priorities than poker, and tried to make constant effort to change and break old habits that involve spending a ton of time on the computer closed off from the world outside ones immediate bubble. I can't say I'm a completely different person or have completely fixed all the bad habits possible but at least have made a lot of progress and hope to continue (it's a pretty slow long process I think). I have a feeling a lot of you guys are like me - being from very similar backgrounds we are bound to be similar in a lot of ways and have had very similar experiences, so I'm guessing you'll understand what I'm saying.

The cliff notes are it was a great experience and a wild ride, I visited 8 countries, did some adventurous stuff and met some amazing people. Also I stopped being so out of shape which is very +life ev. Some people can just live homeless and travel forever or for an extremely long time but after all that I was craving some stability, to stay in the same place a while and build a good balanced life there with a good circle of people close to you, lots of things to do and lots of time and freedom to work on your goals (poker, exercise, reading, etc). So a couple of months ago I moved to central London which might have been the best thing I could've done, as it has everything. Life expenses here are insane but that's just more motivation to play better and work harder Now I'm 2 months into the swing of things. I'm motivated to work hard at poker, going to the best gym I've ever heard of (gyms like this don't exist in normal places), playing a ton of badminton (addicted, really fun sport), got a really fun circle of friends who are always up for doing stuff, in a city with loads of amazing and varied food/experiences and also there's a special girl involved (not gonna put pics u creepos, although byrnesam would likely approve).

Cliffs: Took some time off poker, but playing again now, life is good


April:



Playing hu plo across more than 1 site, generally playing anyone that will join unless I already have action and trying to have quick stoplosses against good regs. Things went my way

May:



Decided to invest the time that winning buys you into learning 6max plo (something I've played very little of lifetime, I was always a hu specialist since July 2010 when I decided to quit nlhe and focus 100% on learning plo) and played mainly on stars. Things did not go my way.


Well this is probably the least phased I've been after such a trainwreck of a month and I guess having life balance is to thank for that. Ofcourse there are feelings of extreme stress and frustration immediately after repeated losing sessions but that's something we all have to deal with, just part of the territory. Luckily for me it goes away the next day. I know I'm pretty terrible right now compared to how good some players are and how good I believe I can be, but in this moment I really like that humbling feeling of making mistakes, failing, losing and being human. It gives you a goal to aim to. I really like the idea of continual self improvement and doing a little every day to become better. Ofcourse it's impossible to keep that up literally every single day, sometimes you just need a break, but if you're moving forward in general I think it feels better than if you're not. Guess I'll just hope June goes better^^

By the way while I'm happy to and want to share this stuff with the LP community, I feel kind of uncomfortable about the fact that anyone from outside is able to google and find this sort of info about me and so I'd like to ask mods not to "feature" any blog I make on the lp front page, and probably will ask to have this deleted in a few months/years. I do wanna share it with you guys though and enjoy when a lot of you share what you're up to as well. Quick shoutout to a couple LPers I've met and/or begun talking to a lot this year - David (locoo20) is an epic gentleman and talented player in poker and life. Thanks for showing me around in Lima mate! And Quentin (mipwnya) likewise is the man.

0 votes

Great movie. Loved that ending, wasn't expecting it at all.

Did you consider learning PLO at non-nosebleed stakes? maybe? nahhhh. Sick graphs.

I've recently discovered memorisation techniquies, they are really helping me with life improvement. e.g, I never run out of things to say in conversation when meeting new people now. never forget anyones name, etc
If you are interested:
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/02/20/magazine/mind-secrets.html

Nice Blog

I wouldn't play in any games I didn't think I have a chance at beating Ofcourse there's a fine line between confidence and overconfidence/delusion that you always gotta watch out for. I can get temporarily overconfident very easily when things are going well which is probably a significant leak. It's important to have some belief in yourself though. For me Fast Eddie in the video clip represents the ideal competitive mindset. Dat self belief, and look how he's smiling after he breaks like hes so happy to just play, so boss.

Thanks I'll check out those techniques, sounds like you've found a pretty good application for those skills

So, still 30k month? I don't know if you can feel too bad after a 30k month =p

True lol, it's two months though and I didn't say I feel bad

good blog entry, we need more of those : )
gl with all ur endeavors mate

wb, great read

On June 01 2012 10:07 Ket wrote: True lol, it's two months though and I didn't say I feel bad

Ahhh now I get it. I thought it was start of month HU, 130k, 2nd half -100k.

Well, that is rather more brutal lol

Thanks for the kind words bro. Anytime you are around!

so that's about 1k hands/day 6 max ? Doesn't feel like a lot =)
I seriously doubt that anyone has forgotten the ROFL thread OP, you have been immortalized with that little stripper wannabe girl...
Oh, and Cosmo's quote lol
glglglgl

Ket is a true hero!

wb sir!


p.s.

so true about locoo! <3

pics plz

Best handle in all of pokerstars. Hands down.

Welcome Back!!

Hey Ket :D I remember, one of my earliest SC:BW memories is playing a game against you on Luna, you proxy gated me ^.^

Since you're in London, you should come watch the Starcraft II world championship series UK finals end of June at BAFTA, Piccadilly. Not many old school UK BW players have qualified, just me and Stone (yenlei) but should be fun.

If your interested theres some info on it here
http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/esports/about
http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/blog/4871777/ <- click UK

Welcome back.

Don't forget to follow the weekly MMA threads in the General forum.

Just stick to PLO HU.

good to hear man

your blogpost brought a smile to my face

we love you Ket