Improve thyself

[Micro2Macro]

Hello and welcome to my new blog. I have been away from the forums for a bit and have still been playing poker, but would like to start posting here again after doing some self-evaluation and realizing what sort of goals I have decided on working at.

First off, one thing I am aiming to do is cut down on my drinking. I have progressively drank more often over the past couple years and its gotten to the point where my health and relationships with others have been affected negatively. So the number one thing for me right now is to cut back. One strategy I am going to work on implementing to help this is taking a walk whenever I feel like having a drink when my daily responsibilities haven't been completed. Another is avoiding hard liquor for semi-obvious reasons. Current drink of choice is beer. I don't think cold turkey is going to work, and I don't think its impossible for me to be very productive and still drink alcohol whether it be alone or socially, but the biggest thing I am working on is control. I won't go any further into this but if anyone has questions or experiences they want to share I would be open to discussion within reasonable limits. I'm fairly good at keeping it down to a point (I rarely if ever have a single drink before dinner), but I'd rather work on cutting it back so it doesn't become a big problem.

Second thing: Grind more. Strategies to assist this will include but not be limited to drinking coffee, stretching/pushups/situps during breaks to get my blood circulating, and keeping track of how many hours a day I play in this blog. Yes that's right I'm going to post the number of hours I spent at the tables here so if it turns out pitifully bad everyone can point and laugh at my lazy ass.

Third will be study on a consistent basis. I've had a pretty up and down year at the tables and my study has been lacking. I would imagine my less than stellar results are a direct consequence of this. I need to ease into it, so I'm going to make the goal of watching at least one poker video a day. As far as playing with pokerstove etc and working out ranges, I don't have set goals for that type of work yet. I am hoping that once I get into the habit of a video a day, the desire to learn more and dig deeper will come more naturally (this is actually how things were a couple years back for me).

Anyway, I'll be posting daily updates to track these little things. I'm also going to keep track of how much alcohol I drink. So far today it's none, and I likely won't have a beer before bed so it's cool to start off on a good note.

One more thing regarding the drink: I won't be posting in my blog drunk or anywhere else on the forums but the drunk thread. I also won't be having a drink until I've made my blog post for the day outlining what I've accomplished sober (well I might do it with a beer in hand but it'll be my first). These are pretty simple rules I've outlined for myself, and I'm going to do my best to follow them. Looking forward to seeing how this turns out, because I feel like a lot of you in this community support me despite me being a giant asshole at times.

Anyway, keep it real guys and good luck at the tables

[jyms]

I wanted to type "first" but didn't want to do that to another great blog, so I'm just going to say good luck, let me know if there is anything I can do to help you outside of the pokers.

[daven]

It's good to see you blogging here.
Those three things you listed will complement each other well.
Exercise is awesome, coffee is too, but keep an eye on whether coffee has impacts on your grind-state-of-mind.
Crush it, you know how
game on.

[rong]

If I look back at my life I can see w clear correlation between drug and alcohol consumption and success. Obviously a negative correlation.

Some easy ways to assist in reducing wastedness:

- find friends with whom you can share time not drinking. This can be hard and may involve doing new things in order to meet new people.
- never drink alone. Drinking and drug taking alone is an easy habit to fall into but prob the easiest type to break. Have a different reward for the end of your day, maybe go to the gym or something.
- get a gf, then use boning her as your end of day reward. This doesn't have to be a serious relationship, just someone hot enough that you want her for a while, it gives you something to do.

Glad you're back, your blogs are usually pretty great.

[Pascal]

Good luck M2M and welcome back

What games do you play?

[!Luck]

Being the Russian that I am I always honestly worried about being an alchy. Back in 2005. I decided to keep track of ever drink I ever had. This has helped me, with so many years if data I'm a me to correlate weight and work out schedule and see the results. Plus, it gives me a rough idea how much money I have spent on alcohol. The for me with the log wasn't to be super accurate but directional correct so I have hard numbers that tell me if I'm getting beter or worse. If interested, ill tell you more details about my system. Good luck and welcome back.

[Micro2Macro]

I wanted to type "first" but didn't want to do that to another great blog, so I'm just going to say good luck, let me know if there is anything I can do to help you outside of the pokers.

ty jyms

It's good to see you blogging here.
Those three things you listed will complement each other well.
Exercise is awesome, coffee is too, but keep an eye on whether coffee has impacts on your grind-state-of-mind.
Crush it, you know how
game on.

hola

If I look back at my life I can see w clear correlation between drug and alcohol consumption and success. Obviously a negative correlation.

Some easy ways to assist in reducing wastedness:

- find friends with whom you can share time not drinking. This can be hard and may involve doing new things in order to meet new people.
- never drink alone. Drinking and drug taking alone is an easy habit to fall into but prob the easiest type to break. Have a different reward for the end of your day, maybe go to the gym or something.
- get a gf, then use boning her as your end of day reward. This doesn't have to be a serious relationship, just someone hot enough that you want her for a while, it gives you something to do.

Glad you're back, your blogs are usually pretty great.

thanks man, good points here.

Good luck M2M and welcome back

What games do you play?

thanks, 2/4-10/20 CAP

Being the Russian that I am I always honestly worried about being an alchy. Back in 2005. I decided to keep track of ever drink I ever had. This has helped me, with so many years if data I'm a me to correlate weight and work out schedule and see the results. Plus, it gives me a rough idea how much money I have spent on alcohol. The for me with the log wasn't to be super accurate but directional correct so I have hard numbers that tell me if I'm getting beter or worse. If interested, ill tell you more details about my system. Good luck and welcome back.

yeah im worried myself so im keeping track of what i drink daily in this blog and knowing that i want to keep it to a bare minimum, this is probably going to be a good way to keep myself under control and improve discipline. since posting this thread i haven't consumed one.

[Micro2Macro]

Quick update on yesterday:

Hours played: 3.22
Videos watched: 2
Drinks consumed: none

Today's plan is to exceed yesterdays hours played, avoid alcohol (though may have 1-2 beers if friend comes over later around dinner), and watch at least one video. [x] attainable.

[Pascal]

Ah cool. What do you think about the CAP player pool at the moment? Is it getting tougher?

I've followed this thread on 2p2: -challenges/attempting-break-pokerstars-vpp-record-2012-a-1145468/index11.html about CAP tables and push/fold tables (there's some hypers stuff in there too), don't know if you've seen it but it's quite interesting.

[The Bean Counter]

Good to see you back and with a new found focus - looking forward to following your progress here and railing you occasionally at the cap tables (don't worry, I'm not one of those twats that will try and chat to you).

Going for SNE in 2013?

[rpm]

all the best man. i'll be following along. we've all seen you're more than capable of kicking the shit out of the games you play.

[CBAT]

Get that ass in gear! Do work son. I'll be following/cheering as always.

<3

[Icanhastreebet]

Ah cool. What do you think about the CAP player pool at the moment? Is it getting tougher?

I can't speak for the last 6months or so but prior to this the CAP games were significantly harder then they started out as in February of 2011. Basically in February of 2011 you could pretty much load up 16 tables, blindly open X ranges from X spots, blindly open like 80-100% sb v bb and just play shove/fold v sb opens or v CO/BTN opens from the BB and you'd have a nice consistent winrate unless you were playing <1/2. By the end of 2011 if you were blindly doing any of these things you would be getting absolutely CRUSHED by "almost" every reg. Not omg -5bb/100 crushed because that can't really happen in 6m CAP but you would be losing money for sure.

I would assume the game has evolved quite a bit over the past year and if you aren't playing your A game at all times you are definitely not going to be a winner.

tl;dr Two years ago even the BEST short stack players were just absolutely terrible except maybe like Quixtar and a couple of the best MTT/HU SNG players. Now even the worst players are "okay".

edit: Also the biggest problem with CAP at the moment is the fact that it's raked 5% at every stake but the cap is essentially the same which is obviously pretty retarded for a whole bunch of reasons which has been said many times before.

[Micro2Macro]

Ican' is pretty much 100% correct regarding the state of CAP.

$20-$30k downswings at 5/10 are standard, and the max you can wager at a time is $200 compared to $1k+ deep.

Regarding SNE next year I have no idea as of right now.

Recap of yesterday:
hours played: 5.48
videos watched: none but spent 45min doing other work off tables
drinks consumed: none

[WeaselT]

welcome back.

[Micro2Macro]

Played for over 6 hours today so not going to bother with watching a video. Over to my buddies house for a few beers and play-station to unwind. Hola to the weekend.

[Micro2Macro]

Only had 1 beer last night.

Went and visited my grandparents today so didn't get on the grind till late. Not sure when ill end but when I start tilting or games die off I'll probably shut it down. I feel like this blog is working in my favor so I'll continue on posting despite nothing too eventful going down.

[MadMojoMonkey]

I notice that I tilt in different ways as time goes on. Lately, when I tilt, I fold too nitty, 'cause I know I'm tilted and I fear misplaying the hand post-flop. I know I should just sit out for a few minutes instead, but I never do. I just grind through the tilt for 10 minutes and try to make it go away. If it doesn't go away, I quit for the day.

What are your current signs of tilt? How effective do you think you are at acknowledging them and recovering?

[Micro2Macro]

I notice that I tilt in different ways as time goes on. Lately, when I tilt, I fold too nitty, 'cause I know I'm tilted and I fear misplaying the hand post-flop. I know I should just sit out for a few minutes instead, but I never do. I just grind through the tilt for 10 minutes and try to make it go away. If it doesn't go away, I quit for the day.

What are your current signs of tilt? How effective do you think you are at acknowledging them and recovering?

I def hear you on this.

I tend to move back and forth between too nitty and too loose/aggressive. I'm always a calling station so I dunno about that one really giving me any indication that I'm on tilt. I find when I'm really on my A game thought I can make both big calls and big folds that I conclude are correct. If for example I catch myself 4bet jamming A2o bvb against a straightforward reg with a 20% 3bet and he knows im nuts and he isn't going to 3b/fold nearly ever, then usually im tilted because ill try to justify it being correct before making the play when its clearly just a trap. I often justify plays like this by saying to myself 'well I could have just open shoved and that would be +EV so now If I just jam it doesn't matter because if he's 3b/calling he has a hand he'd call a shove with' - but that is stupid faulty logic when your opponent is doing something clearly exploitable and you have the opportunity to exploit it you need to capitalize on those spots because that's where your edge comes from.

As far as acknowledging I'm on tilt, it usually doesn't happen till after I do something really stupid. Then I either A) try to focus harder on avoiding making dumb moves or B) continue on playing like a moron before quitting at some point, usually after losing a lot of monies.

[donkbee]

If 20-30k downswings are standard at 5/10 CAP, is it safe to assume that 10-15k downswings are standard at 3/6?

At what CAP stake do the regs become decent? What are your thoughts on the differences between 3/6 and 5/10?

Glad you're blogging again. Good luck with your goals.

[Micro2Macro]

If 20-30k downswings are standard at 5/10 CAP, is it safe to assume that 10-15k downswings are standard at 3/6?

At what CAP stake do the regs become decent? What are your thoughts on the differences between 3/6 and 5/10?

Glad you're blogging again. Good luck with your goals.

Regarding first question: Most definitely yes, in fact I think they may even be more common due to rake being worse relative to stacks, but other factors come into play like how you table select, your edge and so on that will affect the likelihood of these occurring. I've had about 3 downswings in the 10-12k range at 3/6, but I've also went on a massive heater where I made about 25k (can't recall over how many hands). I mass table sometimes and play tilted a lot and don't pay enough attention and don't study enough, so my edge sucks and my swings suck, but these are issues I am aware of and am working on them. Edges will be low regardless though, so even the guys winning big (aren't winning that big if that makes any sense, bb/100s are lowww) are going to experience some swings.

Second: Regs become decent at 3/6 imo, because alot of the guys who play 10/20ish play 3/6 games to increase volume (I don't know the numbers, but it seems like a decent chunk of regs that play mid-highstakes CAP are SNE). Of the 3 CAP regs I know that I hang out with in Toronto once and awhile, all are SNE (they also grind hypers too a bit I think). 3/6 is where I find the tricky/decent regs will start to appear. More prevalent the higher up you go. 2/4 has a lot of grinders, so the really good ones are less common and aren't as much trouble since they are in lower supply. A few decent regs will play 2/4 but the best don't.

Third: Thanks, I am glad to be blogging again too. Feels like I'm able to better keep track of staying on top of this poker thing with it.

[donkbee]

Thanks for the detailed reply. I have a friend that made me play some CAP a few weeks ago and it got me curious about the differences in stakes. I also wasn't sure about bankroll requirements.

I remember you writing about bum hunters in your other operation thread and seeing it first hand gave me a chuckle. When I sat out at my CAP table (usually because I had too many HU SnGs pop up), it was often enough to break the table since all the regs sat out too.

I say it made me laugh, but it's actually pretty sad.

[MadMojoMonkey]

... sorry... what's CAP?

I assumed you meant a capped bet game... which I'd heard of on FT back in the old days. But more and more I'm not sure.

[Micro2Macro]

Thanks for the detailed reply. I have a friend that made me play some CAP a few weeks ago and it got me curious about the differences in stakes. I also wasn't sure about bankroll requirements.

I remember you writing about bum hunters in your other operation thread and seeing it first hand gave me a chuckle. When I sat out at my CAP table (usually because I had too many HU SnGs pop up), it was often enough to break the table since all the regs sat out too.

I say it made me laugh, but it's actually pretty sad.

It's extremely tilting because ill play sessions where I average 8-9 tables and I end up sitting at about 50 different ones - not even exaggerating, my tracking software shows this.

The constant turnover is tiring and has put me off from playing a lot, but I'm working on just accepting that it is what it is, and everyone else has to deal with it too. At least I'll always be in at least somewhat decent of a game since it won't even run if there isn't a fish seated. I wish something could at least be done about everyone sitting out when the fish just sits out for a break, but oh wells. No wonder poker is getting boring/depressing for me, I have to spend all my time scanning the damn lobby while yelling 'deal me in motherfucker!' at the screen.

Question for you: Are you still grinding donkaments online these days?

... sorry... what's CAP?

I assumed you meant a capped bet game... which I'd heard of on FT back in the old days. But more and more I'm not sure.

It's 20bb poker but stacks are capped at 20bb so no matter what you're sitting with every hand is capped at 20bb. It's still nlhe, just with short stacks. 20bbers used to rathole 100bb, now it's a whole different game with new dynamics. I think the full tilt game was 30bb cAP? (Never played it)

[Micro2Macro]

Forgot to update yesterdays progress so I'll throw that in now:

Played: 5.23 hours
Videos watched: one short one, did some quick number crunching for some things
Drank: 4 beers b4 bed while ps3ing

Overall I'm satisfied w/ how I've been doing. I think keeping a consistently updated blog is super critical. I've been most productive/successful throughout my poker career when I've kept at the (positive) blogging, so this will continue. I'd recommend anyone else wanting to take poker seriously to do the same.

Recap of today:
Played: 3.55 hours (spent most of day doing chores/shopping, parents are coming over for dinner tomorrow night for first time in a long time, so decided to get things in order the day before so I wouldn't be scrambling my ass off tomorrow given I'll be sleeping late)
Videos watched: none, no time, I'll study something tomorrow. Did some reading anyway on non-poker related subjects, so brain still in use.
Drank: not a sip.

[jyms]

Good job on the drinking buddy. But your missing study time and Videos as you said you would do. For penance you have to write a small strat article on rake for us at the smaller stakes and explain a few things as to what we could do to reduce variance or play differently to help with our overall BB/100 in terms of rake. hehe

[Micro2Macro]

Heh, we'll see about that Do need to study more though for sure, I'm approaching a bonus though so really want to get that cleared.

Recap of yesterday:
Hours played: 4.3
Videos watched: none
Drinks: 2 glasses of red wine over dinner

[donkbee]

Question for you: Are you still grinding donkaments online these days?

Thankfully no Last year I smartened up and stopped playing MTTs. I played 18man and 6max SnGs for around a year but switched to HU SnGs a few months ago. Currently playing $200 and $300 hypers.

I was thinking of playing some CAP cash to supplement my HU volume because sometimes it's hard to get enough games on PokerStars, but I think Full Tilt coming back will solve most of my problems. I hope so, at least.

[Micro2Macro]

Playing HU sngs would be an asset to CAP imo so good idea.

Recap of yesterday:
Hours played: 4.67
Drinks: none

Going to stop keeping track of videos watched, though I do plan on watching one today.

[Micro2Macro]

Taking the weekend off to spend time with friends and family. Heading to Ottawa tomorrow. Back on the grind Sunday. Many drinks will likely be consumed, and I'll do my best to track em. Haven't had any in the past two days, and I've gotten lots done (even been to the gym 3 times in a week which I haven't done in ages) so I'm happily going to have a few socially and feel good about keeping things under control. Hola back.

[daven]

Hola back.

holla!

Taking the weekend off to spend time with friends and family. Heading to Ottawa tomorrow. Back on the grind Sunday. Many drinks will likely be consumed, and I'll do my best to track em. Haven't had any in the past two days, and I've gotten lots done (even been to the gym 3 times in a week which I haven't done in ages) so I'm happily going to have a few socially and feel good about keeping things under control.

^ all sounds great bro. Nice work on getting to the gym

wrt watching poker vids, what type of vids are you predominantly watching? strat/theory? sweats? psychology stuff? cap specific?
how much benefit do you think you gain from an hour or two watching a vid vs other study approaches?

[Micro2Macro]

Back on the grind tomorrow, had 8 beers at my friends place, and then a bit of vodka @ bar when out on weekend, didn't drink today. Going back up next weekend too, my friends roommate works at an auto-detailing shop so he's going to give me a cheap price on some rust spray procedure for underneath my car before winter gets worse.

Daven, regarding videos, I tend to watch more HH review, strat/theory, than live play. Just hearing someone else talk about poker is pretty important to developing as a player. I just became aware of this recently because I went awhile without listening to coaching/instruction from any source, and then I felt like I was getting too narrow minded. Def key to send hh's back and forth and talk about them with others too.

[Micro2Macro]

So I'm taking my car in today for a little work then I'm going to start grinding later this afternoon. Last week I played roughly 32.5 hours. I am pretty pleased with this, and from now until next Monday I'm going to aim to get in at least 35. I'm going to set the goal of not drinking any alcohol at all during this week (saving it for weekend). I'm sure my bank account, health, and numerous other things will thank me.

Now that I'm heading back to being more productive, I seem feel more eager to go visit friends on the weekend instead of staying in half assing the grind because I'm not pleased with what I got done during the week. Therefore my plan is to really work on getting lots done before Friday so I can feel comfortable allowing myself a day or two of slack.

Poker can sometimes feel weird to being playing for a living because its so easy (for me at least) to get into a lazy vibe and then have trouble breaking out. We just sit, and click, and sit, and click more, have no boss to enforce rules or time spent playing/studying, and because of that it becomes a pretty huge personal responsibility. I am going to get to the gym at least 3x this week. I think this is probably one of the most important things to do in order to keep sane and not get too lazy. The fact that you have to get up, out of the house, commute to gym, change clothes, workout, shower, eat etc. keeps me feeling busy and gets me into a productive vibe. Gym may not be for everyone, but doing something active is for sure important. Even just going for a walk is for sure very +EV.

I'm interested in hearing what you guys do to stay active. Are you a gym rat? Do you hike? Ski? Play on a sports team? I encourage anyone reading to leave a reply.

[jyms]

You definitely are on the right track. There is no way that having time off from anything could help you focus more while spending time playing. A solid exercise regime will only help that too. Do you think there is much lost over taking weekends off as a poker player? I know your friends are always going to have weekends off, and you may be more successful by stopping the grind and taking time to be with them if it's important, but how much can be lost from not playing Friday, Saturday and Sundays?

[MadMojoMonkey]

I'm interested in hearing what you guys do to stay active. Are you a gym rat? Do you hike? Ski? Play on a sports team? I encourage anyone reading to leave a reply.

I'm a sedentary being. No scheduled or planned "activity" in my life.
Playing with 2 big dogs in my back yard is about the most I do on any given day.

[CBAT]

You definitely are on the right track. There is no way that having time off from anything could help you focus more while spending time playing. A solid exercise regime will only help that too. Do you think there is much lost over taking weekends off as a poker player? I know your friends are always going to have weekends off, and you may be more successful by stopping the grind and taking time to be with them if it's important, but how much can be lost from not playing Friday, Saturday and Sundays?

If I remember correctly, games are often times a little softer on the weekends, but by how much I am not sure? Also the +ev in taking a break away could be bigger than the +ev that the average table would offer on a given weekend. Unfortunately there is no specific way of measuring this, but I do believe that weekend breaks sure will help your mind for the week.

I'm a gym goer, I used to play in a basketball league, but had a scare with the surgically repaired knee and now I'm awfully cautious, so just been going to the gym about 3 times a week and usually try to get in a day of tabatas or a run. Hurt my wrist back in March, and neglected rehabbing it for months, finally after 2 months of physical therapy, it is good to go now and am starting to put some muscle back on. I can say, your food intake is 80% of the battle. Eat healthy and exercise some and you will be healthy. Exercise a lot and eat (or drink) unhealthy and you will be in worse shape.

[donkbee]

I go to the gym 3x per week too. I see a personal trainer once a week, which kind of keeps me waking up at decent times during the week (otherwise I have a bad habit of sleeping in every day til the afternoon)

[rong]

Used to surf, no better sport imo. Now I'm getting fat because I've become lazy and/or lack of time.

Why is it that so many of us, when left without someone else to dictate a structure to our day, will sleep until the afternoon each day. Surely the opposite should be true and we should naturally take our daily cycle from the sun.

[kiwiMark]

Coming into my third week of going for a short (really short, like 15 minutes) jog every morning immediately after getting out of bed, every day monday-friday. Awesome way to start the day for me, and while I've enjoyed running a lot in the past I've never been able to make myself run in the mornings, so bragabrag.

My recommendation has to be martial arts though, I'm a little guy with no aspirations of being able to beat up passers-by on the street, but just as a way of keeping fit and getting regular exercise, I found it super fun, interesting (there're different kinds of mental challenge there as well) and if you're lucky to get a good club then everyone pushes and supports each other which is awesome. I haven't done this for more than two years now but I spotted a local taekwando club near where I just move to so I'm going to try to get back into it.

[DoubleJ]

Mountain-Biking.

Off-road and with the lads as often as possible, and if not, put a set of slicks on and do ~45 mins cardio on the pavement.

first thing in the morning, this time of year....o yes.

And drumming, of course, for the catharsis

[daven]

Def key to send hh's back and forth and talk about them with others too.

how many people are you regularly talking too about hand histories and strat these days?

Last week I played roughly 32.5 hours.

nh

I am going to get to the gym at least 3x this week. I think this is probably one of the most important things to do in order to keep sane and not get too lazy. The fact that you have to get up, out of the house, commute to gym, change clothes, workout, shower, eat etc. keeps me feeling busy and gets me into a productive vibe. Gym may not be for everyone, but doing something active is for sure important. Even just going for a walk is for sure very +EV.

agree completely

I'm interested in hearing what you guys do to stay active. Are you a gym rat? Do you hike? Ski? Play on a sports team? I encourage anyone reading to leave a reply.

No gyms for me.. I try to ride instead of drive whenever i can, fitness + i enjoy being on my bike. Generally I go climbing at an indoor climbing wall a couple of times a week minimum, and outside climbing on top of that. Running 4-6 days a week, i've got a couple of good friends i run with and it's great for sanity to hang out with a friend while getting a heavy sweat on for an hour or two either before or after a few hours of grind. I haven't been surfing for ages, even though i can check the surf from my lounge window. Surfing is another one of those things that is great for life.

I think it's impossible to overstate how beneficial regular exercise is for professional poker players. Now that i can't exercise for a while I'm definitely having to be a lot more careful on the sanity and tilt management fronts.

[Hoopy]

I'm interested in hearing what you guys do to stay active. Are you a gym rat? Do you hike? Ski? Play on a sports team? I encourage anyone reading to leave a reply.

At university I played on a football team and tried to play badminton around 3 times a week. Also walked 1-2 miles most days.

Recently I've got into basketball and try to play pickup with my friends when possible. In general I try to do something everyday, whether walking or pullups or a few yoga poses.

[WeaselT]

Used to ride my snowboard about 100 days per season. Sooooo much fun, doesnt feel like excercise most of the time. Recovering from my 2nd knee surgery now. Doin physical therapy few times a week and weight training the other days of the week. As soon as im better im back on my board every day.

[jyms]

Less about fitness and more about poker please.



Kidding obv, we know you know your game and it's teh other actiities that are killing your winrate and time playing your A game.

[d0zer]

get yer shit together boy

*slaps*

[Micro2Macro]

its gettin there, gym 3 days in a row, havent drank anything all week, plan on keeping that up throughout weekend and grinding instead.

ship the monies.

[Micro2Macro]

Coming in with a weekly update. Played 26 hours. A bit short of where I wanted to be but I ended up putting extra time into study, as well as two days off to kick it. As a result I felt really sharp at the tables and my results (despite being short term) were good. I didn't drink at all during the week, but Saturday I had 4 beers and a glass of wine. I hit the gym 4 days which is a massive success, and the fact that I pulled that off is more important to me than slacking a few hours of grind right now. Gonna aim to get all gym time in before the weekend this week and take sat/sun off. Friday I may have friend(s) met through poker come visit my place so looking forward to that. Gonna grind the poker/study/gym hard this week until then.

Catch yas later

[DoubleJ]

good work M2M!

[Pascal]

Nice, great start. Keep it up!

[Jason]

Regarding the drinking, someone very close to me is an alcoholic. I went to some family counseling classes and they taught us that there is this threshold that people cross when drinking where they can't handle it anymore. It's a biological thing where will power isn't possible and the only solution is to stop drinking.

Anyway, that's just something to keep in mind. Hopefully you haven't crossed that line they spoke about and your discipline will prevent it from happening.

[kiwiMark]

jason lives

[Micro2Macro]

@ jason, yeah basically I see the potential to cross that point so am doing what I can to avoid it. I did have 5 beers last night b4 bed but my mood was solid since I booked a winning sesh @ 10/20 and I spent that time reading/playing ps3. I think the biggest thing is avoiding it when I'm angry because that's when we tend to make irrational decisions.

In other news, I met up with an old friend for working out @ gym. He's training for boxing matches so after my first workout with him I feel like I have been hit by a train - but damn it feels good. I had to take two days off but will be hitting gym tomorrow b4 friend from toronto comes down for some degening. Should be a fun weekend. Grinding in the meantime, possibly painting basement if games die out. No drink tonight since I can only imagine many will be consumed tomorrow, starting with a fresh bottle of Lagavulin 16.

[!Luck]

at what point did casual drinking and occasional degening turn into what you yourself perceived to be a problem?

[Micro2Macro]

not exactly sure because I don't really know how to define a drinking problem (I suppose its all relative) I remember I used to never drink by myself then after letting that 'personal rule' slip it became no big deal, so then I worry about that progressing hence now I keep track of what I'm taking in and the fact that I want to avoid it helps.

you could say it was officially a problem the first time I sat at 10/20 a few beers in, which was last year sometime. nothing disastrous happened but the fact I even had a drop of alcohol before playing close to my upper limit in games was pretty against my whole approach to the game so it was out of character to say the least. Ive played a bit of 2/4 since that after having a few beers but 2/4 is a joke.

[MadMojoMonkey]

As to whether it's a problem...

I think it comes down to how you handle escapism. Everyone needs to remove themselves from their daily grind... This is evident by the presence of entertainment/entertainers in nearly all cultures in the world. Movies, TV, video games, drugs/alcohol, etc. are all methods of distracting ourselves... some are potentially less healthy than others, but all are potentially healthy to the degree that they allow us to temporarily distance ourselves from reality, which seems to be a regular human need.

I think any form of escapism becomes a problem when the person indulges in avoiding their inner conflicts more than they participate in engaging their inner conflicts.

[Micro2Macro]

Weed is probably 10x better for unwinding for me. I never saw it as a way to deal with conflicts of any sort, I like to smoke 1-2x a week and read a good book before bed. Alcohol usually just makes me want to drink more unless my mood is alright. It's weird how unacceptable it is socially to people (parents etc), though I guess it's not exactly legal but whatever, sue me. It's funny because if I told my parents I smoke 2-4 joints a week they'd flip shit assume I have a drug problem, yet if I told him I drank 6 beers a day on average they'd think nothing of it (def happy my average isn't that high and I plan on keeping things that way).

I also find with weed that I have no desire to get super baked, but with alcohol there's a part of me that wants to be highly intoxicated. wtf? I haven't been wasted since first weekend of the month when I visited brother so this is good (write off anyway since it wasn't by-self)

Anyway recap of last weeks drinking, had 4 or 5 beers Friday then on Saturday fellow cap regular and I hung out, bbq'd some massive steaks and had a few (1/2bottle of wine, 5 beers?) Didn't really keep track we had lots to talk about since it had been awhile. 1 beer last night w/ dinner. Was about to grab another but said fuck it, sunday grind and focused on the tables.

Also strangely enough I found reading the economist and trying to stay updated on financial news actually tilts the living fuck out of me so I stopped. Do I feel less informed about global politics and what the hell is going on with the euro? Yes. [ ] cares. I'm working on narrowing my focus of things to poker (with a bit of real estate reading on the side since I have plans for starting there with investing) for now because I find that trying to learn too much about too many things at once just leaves me underachieving at all of them. If I had $100million free cash to invest, then figuring out where in the world to place it would be pretty key. But I don't

[Jason]

When I went to a family counseling program, they had a list of 10 to 15 questions on the wall to help a person gauge whether or not they have a problem with addiction. I remember the person I was there would have answered 'Yes' to darn near all of them. It was obvious he/she had a problem. I don't know if that's a standard list or one that this facility made on their own.

A common theme seems to be that a person needs the thing they are addicted to function at a basic, normal, or even high level. They get anxious when they don't have it. They will lie or make excuses to get it. They will make several attempts to quit yet come back for a number of reasons they rationalize. They have problems with their family, friends, or job as a direct or indirect result of the addiction. There are other warning signs, but those are the ones that stick out.

At any rate, if you ever want to delve deeper into it, there are many resources available. There are several AA meetings that you can go to as an observer - just make sure it's one where anyone can go as opposed to one where you must be an alcoholic to go.

[CBAT]

Agree with a lot in your last post M2. Alcohol sux IMO. Can be tough on the body too. Unlike the alternative.

[Micro2Macro]

Been thinking of goals for 2013 lately and I'll give away this one now.

Pay down an extra $20k onto my mortgage. I'm able to make lump sum payments annually without penalty. Reason is because lending has gotten tighter here in Canada and interest rates are expected to rise in the coming years, and I plan on purchasing property again within the next year or two. As far as I know putting a lump sum down will lower my monthly payments, and when it comes time to move on to another home, lower payments on my current one will allow me to generate higher cash flow when I choose to put it up for rent.

[daven]

Been thinking of goals for 2013 lately and I'll give away this one now.

Pay down an extra $20k onto my mortgage. I'm able to make lump sum payments annually without penalty. Reason is because lending has gotten tighter here in Canada and interest rates are expected to rise in the coming years, and I plan on purchasing property again within the next year or two. As far as I know putting a lump sum down will lower my monthly payments, and when it comes time to move on to another home, lower payments on my current one will allow me to generate higher cash flow when I choose to put it up for rent.

looking forward to seeing the rest of the 2013 goals..

re the bold - there are a few options, two follow. 1- you can keep the term of the loan the same and reduce the monthly payments. 2- you can keep the payments the same meaning that you're hitting way more equity (i.e. there is a lower interest component) with each payment, significantly lowering the term of the loan. I'm guessing you've done so already, but if you haven't then go and play around with an online mortgage calculator. I'm going with making lump sum payments + thinking about increasing the weekly payments. Also, look into the difference between making payments weekly vs monthly, you pay off debt materially more quickly over the course of a loan period if you make the same $ amount of payments when paid weekly. Another thing to look into - I dunno about canada, but in nz if you have mortgages over 2 or more properties it's better to preferentially pay down debt on the property you live in. This is because the interest on a rental property is deductible against rental income => less of the rent you receive is taxable.

[rong]

That's true, but you pay a lower rate on the residential mortgage compared to the buy to let mortgage, so you need to play around with figures and see how it plays out. Also consider the loan to value ratio on each property as that figure drastically effects the interest rate as well, so the balances on each of the two mortgages and the interest rates on each combined with tax implications becomes a maximization problem that should be relatively easy to solve.

[Micro2Macro]

Update: I am very much considering a serious run at SNE next year. I have some ideas of how to make it work because the last time I tried I made some - actually I made a LOT of mistakes that could have been avoided which led to failure. I'll talk more about this later.

I haven't been keeping track of drinks and grind but it's the holiday season sooo fuck it. It's been a decent month. Making up a list of all the stuff I want to do next year within the next few days and will post it here. It won't just be goals, but rather things I just want to do that will likely bring some good into my life.

One last thing: Don't forget to call a cab or a sober friend if you've had a few and need a ride. Happy holidays everybody.

[Micro2Macro]

I think I'm gonna shut this one down and start a noob in the new year because I feel like I'm heading down the right track and would like to open with some ideas of what I'd like to accomplish for the next year or so to come.

Thanks for following guys, I will be around shortly after the new year!

[CBAT]

I think I'm gonna shut this one down and start a noob in the new year because I feel like I'm heading down the right track and would like to open with some ideas of what I'd like to accomplish for the next year or so to come.

Thanks for following guys, I will be around shortly after the new year!

Look forward to it.

[MadMojoMonkey]

Thanks for all the great stuff, M2M. I look forward to the next one.