Update-10 days

Food
In the first week it was my standard - I had about 4 hours when I actually felt good in the whole week. I binged several times, once even on vegetables - I ate so much until I felt ill, but the next morning didn't feel as bad as usual and I actually could do stuff

A great help was GGPLZ here on LP, he knows his stuff. I actually drafted two big ass PMs and they got deleted, sorry for that David.
He pointed out and I have confirmed something weird - I seem to have adverse reaction to dietary fat. Every single time I wrote down the 'brain fog' state that I often have (fatigue, fog like feeling where my eyes de-focus and it feels like I am not in my body, and I feel generally low) I have eaten more than a drizzle of dietary fat, and it happened even after eating fish and avocado and olives, or the healthy fats.

It works without fail The same reaction doesn't happen when I eat carbs, including sugar when it has low amount of fat. I did some research and there were no studies really showing a correlation between consumption of healthy fat and bad mood, but fat is what I am avoiding apart from minimal amount on stir fries and omega oil supplement in the morning, and I feel so much better on days when I manage to avoid eating fat.

I also found out I need to snap bomb myself with simple carbs in the morning to get started along with a vitamin supplement and omega oil. My GF bought some soy coconut milk with quite bit of sugar in it, and it works great to give me the kick in the morning I need.


I also eat regularly, and I have to since my monitoring sheet has columns for food and it just sucks writing down 'SKIPPED' since this is my no.1 commitment. So far it happened just once, today when I was enjoying my poker session and hand review too much (and I finished all bananas last night). After doing the review and finding about the fat as a trigger this Monday I went out of control just once when I went with my girlfriend to the city and there was this new American bistro open. One hot dog with cheese ensured that my whole afternoon was fucked up, and I followed it up with a large mocha at Starbucks, 2 double cheeseburgers and 2 fried chicken stuff and coke at McD. But the regularity is working great, and it sure does feel great to not truly binge for 4 whole days.

I also went on to follow GGPLZ's advice and loaded on fruit veg munching. Two things that I really love are mango and bananas. Local supermarket sells bananas at some £0.68 or $1/KG so they are dead cheap and a large mango costs just £.87p. I actually allow myself to eat bananas in between regular meals, as keeping blood glucose levels steady is very important for balanced mood, and bananas are also good for serotonin (see lower section).

I also try to always keep water next to my desk and drink a ton during the day. I read some literature and I am actually supposed to drink some 3L of water every day (Including that from food)

Exercise
I found a great routine that is both fun and challenging:


5 Min dressing room: think about what I want to achieve, specific exercises and imagine performing them

7 min warmup: 4 min some cardio machine, 3 min movements and stretches that mimic what I'll do in the session

20-30 Minutes: Circuits, 45s perform one, 15s break, 45s perform another one, 8-10 in total. 2 min break and go again.
The only rule is that the exercises should work large muscle groups, and include need for balance if possible. I got about 30 different things I can do from various magazines and experience, my improvisation or this workout:

This is great for weight loss, overall fitness and it's a brutal cardio. I always finish with shadow boxing with weights to show that bastard in the mirror who's boss

10 Minutes: Isolation moves into failure. This I do for fun and for that confidence boost, I usually do biceps and bench press, but I plan to add more exercises once I get bored of these two (hardly ;P). Basically you use as much weight that forces you to be unable to do 10 reps and you fail somewhere, this creates microtears in your muscles and speeds up growth.

5 minutes: ABS
5 minutes: stretching. This is well important but so easy to skip when you are exhausted. I do this in the pool sometimes, and it's always nice to go for a swim and Jacuzzi. When I don't go to the pool after session I at least use hot and cold water several times in the shower as that relaxes your muscles.


This routine doesn't fuck me up completely and gives me a good balance. I used to do 1min and 15s in the circuits but it was too much for me, so now I am hoping to just do more circuits (I can do 2 now). Doing the isolation moves and ABS after I catch my breath from the circuits also ensures that my muscles are properly warmed up and ready to pump to exhaustion.

On non-workout days I just go for a run or swim when I feel like it. On Monday I had so much energy that I couldn't stop myself but to go for a run


I also always try to do something in the morning, just 5-10 minutes to get me started. Variety is very important for me so it can be jumping jacks, sex, a brisk walk, shadow boxing, swimming etc. just something that gets wakes me up and starts my metabolism. I'd usually wake up, do the dump, put on contacts, wash my face, get some quick carb boost like the coconut soy milk or a banana and supplements and then I am onto the the small excercise before the rest of my breakfast.

Serotonin and dopamine
I did a lot of research into this, as I think lack of serotonin is one of the triggers for my overeating and compulsive behavior
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Basically you need to do the things listed and find things that make you feel good/generate serotonin and schedule time for them throughout the day. Not doing this is why you see so many poker players burnout, and it can be very hard at times. Besides eating, this is my main non-poker focus.


Poker
I had one of the aha moments in last days, when thinking about this:
http://www.liquidpoker.net/poker-forum/973442/Your_scripts_.html and observing my play and train of thought. Basically through the few years I played the game for fun and because I just love observing people and finding patterns I became completely detached from my own range and my own play and especially hand strength, and hand strenght is often very low in my thinking scripts and many times not even there at all.

I saw what I did and e.g. I called Q8s to a 3bet against an unknown, and got stacked with a retarded line. Or I spewed against a check minraise and showed river with total air. My immediate standard reaction is not ask myself what my play was, but thinking completely about villain, his motivation, how can I exploit him and adjust etc. My intuitive thought process starts with metagame, villain's range, his likely thought process, often my mood and only then there is space for constructing my own range and playing my hand relative strength. When this happens the whole feedback loop simply disappears, as I don't scrutinize my game, I have no standard and I only focus on villains.

I turned for help to a video a series I just glanced over previously, but that is so amazing for a guy like me. It's Amateur to Pro, and the student is Lee Davy. He was playing on the side of his job, was watching all videos out there and was a fan of Giggy.. and he was also breakeven FPS monkey. He quit his $100k+ job to play poker and write about poker, and the series is about teaching overall solid ABC game to a guy like him.

It builds on the following principles:
• Select cards pre-flop that have great postflop barrel possibilities (they have a lot of equity).
• Dominate others, and avoid being dominated (very important).
• Avoid marginal situations that make no money.
• Look in database, and if a hand is not profitable and you don’t know why, just remove it from your range until you find out why.

My notes on first two are here:

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UTG+MP Opening ranges
Core ATs+, KQs, AJo+22+)
• Do open 22-55 in most games
• If you are struggling, cut hands to core rangeThen add baby aces, 67s-98s.
• ! LOWISH SOOTED BROADWAYS – NOT WITH REGS! Otherwise you are being dominated too much oop

CO Opening Range
Core : (ATo+,KQo+,AXs, Suited broadways, 22+)
+ Normal guys behind - Add: Broadways, 76s+=>K8s, J9s Q9s=>75s+
+ Tight guys behind – Add: AXo, 2 gappers, KXs. Suited connected=Good.
Fish behind – Broadways, high KXo. High card –good

BU Opening Range
Core: AXs+ AXo+, 65s+ K8s, Q8s, T8s, all broadways.
Combined f to st: 140+ wide, 160+100%

SB Opening Range
70% and lower overall fold to steal: 77+ AXs+, A9o+, Broadways !22-66 SHOULDN’T BE A PART OF A TIGHT RANGE!
Cold calling range
! Cut it out, 5% no higher (VPIP minus PFR)

CORE MP: Against regs, call QQ+AK v UTG, UTG+1 (and KQs, AQs, 22+) On tables with a lot of squeezing, fold 22-77
CORE CO: 22+, AJs, AQs, AQo, KQs. Avoid calling lower broadways like JTs KTs to avoid domination

If they bet fold >50% on flop, ADD: hands that connect well and have equity often: 65s-98s, AXs.

BU vs CO: against 20%+raise;
CORE: All suited broadways, ATo+, A9s+22+, if they fold add AXs, midsc
• When a guy opens AXs, add ATo, AJo
• Against people that fold to a flop raise and cbet a lot, call a lot of 78s AXs+ raise flops, then add sc and then gappers
• Look at who is in the blinds, 22-66 can be 3bet IP when people squeeze in blinds A LOT

Blinds OOP:
• V EP: Very tight range
• V LP: Sooted broadways, ATo, AJo, 22+, C/R a decent amount, add small AXs first.

V people who fold a lot : You can add AQ, AJ
• Mid SCs are not that good
• C/R OVERS+BACKDOOR. GIVE UP ON TURN UNIMPROVED.


Sizing:
UTG, UTG: 1 – 3.5
CO: 3
BU 2.5
Isolating Limpers
Size: 4-4.5 BB
IP:
Core on MP, OOP: AXs, A8o+, 77+, all broadways, T8s+, T9o+ - top pair potential and barrel potential
ADD: If they fold a 65%+ to cbet, a lot of suited hands, AXo
OOP: Tighten up
MULTIPLE LIMPERS: Slightly stronger
!22-55 AND LOW SC SHOULD BE OVERLIMPED (Unless you know they fold a lot on flop)
-You don’t have much flop potential

Fundamentals
• Select cards pre-flop that have great postflop barrel possibilities (they have a lot of equity).
• Dominate others, and avoid being dominated (very important).
• Avoid marginal situations that make no money.
• Look in database, and if a hand is not profitable and you don’t know why, just remove it from your range.

!EXCERCISE: Open villain’s range from e.g. CO, and construct a cold calling range that is good against that

!PREPARE FOR A COACHING SESSION:
• List of hands with reads
• Stats
• Feelings
• Make a journal every day/week

It's amazing that I take a ton of notes, can feel what players think, but without thinking about my own range composition and hand strength first it's like trying to build a skyscraper on muddy soil.

I disregard the advice of many, and I play 6 tables and add more when I have energy, and what I am focusing now is not new amazing concepts, not taking more notes, not high stakes videos, not how to exploit villains with creative lines, but how to play fundamental poker with the above principles, and with focusing on my thought process always starting with 'what hand do I actually have' and then the rest . I balance the potential lack of focus by off the table work, and I do a lot of it, after every session.

I also put in a small journal just for poker, where I write down mistakes, hands, advice, successes etc. and I have it always open. It's just 2 days so far but it's nice to have this and I will include it in my weekly review (Each Monday I can't touch poker, and I just to chores, go explore Edinburgh and do review of my sheets)

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Blog
Apparently people make some small amount of money blogging? Also a couple guys on DC said that besides some future potential income a blog is like a business card. I got loads of data and let's face it LP blog is hard to categorize and for frequent updates, so I will try to find some free time to set up a professional looking blog in the future, one that's +ev to write in my free time, and I will also use it to publish my psychology research related to poker when I have time for it, and spend a couple hours per week working updating it at least with my weekly reviews. LP blog would be too crammed and nobody would read that stuff anyway

Job
As planned I applied for some part-time jobs. I want to work 2 days per week to cover my rent and avoid compulsive grinding where I don't focus on fundamentals. I am going for nothing demanding, a couple festival jobs that include meet&greet, and some customers service, and I am trying to find a manual job outside, but I am not sure where to look for those. It would be free Serotonin, Dopamine AND money
I want to do this until at least I beat NL50 for a good winrate with a solid bankroll again, and when I do and poker hourly will be near normal job I will just do a day of volunteering every week to maintain my social skills, and to also feel good and feel like I am contributing. I am far from being there yet though.


Well that's about it for the update. Next week I got my Graduation Ceremony where I will get my diploma and say byebye to University (thankfully my GF studies for Masters until October so I can keep abusing the library. I read about 5 books on nutrition and binge eating in the last 2 weeks, and there is a lot of interesting stuff there that relates to helping with poker/balanced life and mood ). I must say I am absolutely loving this, and I got loads and loads off work ahead of me, but it feels like I am on the right track and getting my life back.


P.S. One thing I have to say is that you guys shouldn't write down LP as a strategy forum just yet. If you put in the work you will get the answers, and I have to thank all you great people like GGPLZ, Tom, Gororok, Evilsky, Oly, Patti, ROb, Sunny, Sroggoz and everyone else who spend their valuable time replying to hands and giving away free advice and more. DC is good for theory and some great discussions, Pokerstrategy is paid to give professional advice, and there is a lot of stuff on 2p2 but there is nothing like LP when it comes to closeness of the community. Plus the ROFL Thread makes you feel good and it is very healthy if you spend a few minutes each day(not hours as it's a free serotonin boost. Remember, scheduling time for what makes you tick and feel good is very important

0 votes

Enjoy your cheap fucking bananas, we pay around $15 a kilo here. Damn you cyclone Yasi and no import laws!

too fuckin long

On June 11 2011 04:56 dogmeat wrote: too fuckin long

Yeah I realized that, that why I need my own blog, I'd make more small posts at once in different categories, this is really tldr

i didnt read a word but all i can say is lately i've seen some hh of you and you seem to be improving, keep it up and you'll be swimming in a pool of money in no time

just dont get fancy, keep playing tight

i feel so loved @ at the end of your post

GL man, more playing less blogging : )

lol lemon, i know your blogs are tldr before even clicking them.

you always seem so motivated and driven when it comes to poker and improving yourself, gl hope you succeed at your goals

On June 11 2011 19:57 Big_Rob_48 wrote: GL man, more playing less blogging : )

I am ill and can't play ((((((((((((

But I definitely cut the crap and focus on playing/hand reviews/the ABC series and thinking about my ranges. Even DC videos seem too slow and a waste of time.

My plan is to blog once per week when I do my reviews as I have a rule that I can't touch poker/HEM/talk about hands one day per week and just do chores, look at review sheets and blog.

lemon - play more , talk less. u write up 20 page articles weekly about the most arbitrary shit. just fucking play and get good already will ya.

gl,
ryan

GJ, keep up the good work

nice to see you making blogposts instead of clogging the general forum
you should look into stretching more because it helps prevent injuries and increases range of motion... and is good for you in a number of other ways
7 minutes for warmup/stretching is surely not enough.

On June 11 2011 23:37 NeillyJQ wrote: lemon - play more , talk less. u write up 20 page articles weekly about the most arbitrary shit. just fucking play and get good already will ya. gl, ryan

Maybe you didn't realize yet , but I like writing .
That's great about poker - writing about monthly reports, memos and performance reviews is just...well it just doesn't exist for a reason. Business world is dull. I like how it helps streamline my train of thought and read it back to myself, and if one person reads it I am happy

In fact, I think I love the idea of the author of the Black Swan (book, a story of probability) to just stop reading newspapers and watching news and start reading books for the sake of it and write articles in the freed up time. It just something that fulfills me, exploring new ideas from different angles and writing about my merged understanding, and since I finished uni, blogging and 'clogging up' the forums will be my pastime.

I definitely need to put a cap on it though, because of my huge poker ambition and working on my game and nutrition taking so long, strictly restricting time for blogging into 1 day per week and 'dead' times where I allow myself to do whatever I want (8:00-10:30, 22:00-sleep) where dopamine levels are at their lowest should do the trick

tl; will read later

I'm a huge fan of Nassim Taleb. I've srsly reduced the amount of time I waste reading bullshit forums and have increased my reading and writing time... its improved my life quite a bit.