Up to 259kms for the year now of which 144kms have been run this month. With a few days remaining I should end up around 160km for April which is one of my biggest months ever and a fair way to being back on track.




YTD pro rata target is 484kms so still a long way behind but I'll just keep chipping away and closing the gap.

Bought a new set of running shoes a week or two ago but never ran in them as they felt a size too big. Changed them over on the weekend and also spent a few $$ buying the wifey a new car which she'd been hassling me about for a while. So that's house, furniture, ducted gas heating installation and now car within the past 6 months. Better start winning at poker again soon as the disposable income has basically dried up now

As for the poker, just chipping away with small sessions of the 6+ format. BR was as low as €19 not so long ago and close to re-depositing however I have worked it back to around €150 now so hopefully I can keep that heading in the right direction.

Great stuff dude! Back on the horse. You've overtaken me already. I'm struggling with knackered (but not broken) foot. Something is not right but I just need to get back to it as resting it hasn't really helped. Something tendony or whatever.

Good luck with disposable income!

Cheers and thanks @thetallpaul

Sometimes rest isn't actually the answer but running through it may not work either. Have you had it checked out?

Been hanging in with the poker. Trying to make it work. Trying to enjoy the game again. Been a grind though. Managed to grind it back from 19EU back to about 150EU and then lost 6 stacks at 20NL tonight.... 5 times AK AIPF v aggro over 3 bettors and each time AA. How do the aggros always get it when I finally pick up a hand? Finally get one in v AK myself when I have KK...spikes A. Yeah, I'm done with poker.

Sounds like an incredibly swingy session there!

If it comes to enjoying poker what do you think about MTTs?

I don't really have the time for MTTs Jon. I used to play single table SNGs almost exclusively and was quite good at them, but that was 7 or 8 years ago now. Might be worth a try for a change but I'm sure they've changed quite a bit since I played them.

I'm just really frustrated. I know I'm bleating about hard luck stories, but I'm obviously just a fish now. Not sure what's happened in 6 months and why I have turned from a solid, albeit small winning player, to someone who's now bleeding $$. I feel like I'm playing the right hands from the right position, picking the rights spots to 3bet etc, not getting out of line and making stupid plays....I'm obviously still very tight and probably a little too rigid in my play... but overall I sit there, trying to do all the right things, watching others splash around (and profit) playing all sorts of crap and stacking off with all sorts of junk, yet when I finally get a premium AIPF against them, they somehow always have the nuts or outdraw me and if I manage a set or a straight someone still pulls up a flush or a full house. Even when I have them crushed with top pair better kicker it feels like they somehow get a board run out that counterfeits me and splits the pot.

It obviously isn't as simple as "woah is me I'm so unlucky". As I said I'm clearly a fish right now. I just don't know where to start in turning it around and how to start looking in to what I'm doing wrong.

Do you reckon it is simply a confidence thing?

How much were you studying 6months ago? What was your bankroll management like 6months ago? What was your attitude tonplayibg 6months ago?

That is why you are not winning. Your brm was non existent and I know you said it's for fun but most people who play for fun with 5bi go busto. So no brm and attitude of its just for fun = fish mentality. Doesn't make you a fish but you out your mind and yourself in a position a fish does and fish lose money.

It's certainly right down. Whether it's the major issue, who knows..

Been playing with 5BI recently only..............as the BR has taken a tumble. However, until I lost most of it, I was easily rolled for my stakes.

Should I have moved down a lot earlier though and preserved the BR...no doubt. The issue was I guess that I've always been able to arrest a down swing a lot quicker than this and I expected that at some point I would get things heading north again. It just hasn't happened.

Same as saying I'm usually quick to get out of a burning building so I'll wait another few minutes really You run KK into AA twice in a session and lose a flip and you will be crushed, same as if the fire touches something very flammable as you get to it and you have to turn back but find your way blocked.

What about the toerh two points? How have you been studying recently? What has your approach been to playing? What were both like back 6 months ago

Well no not really because as I said I was playing with an adequate roll, even if it was heading south. I should have moved down earlier as I said but playing with the 5BI has been the exception, not the norm.



My attitude to all was clearly far better 6 months ago. Hard to say how much of today's attitude though is due to the absolute destruction of my confidence I've taken over that period though.

Either way, I'll probably take a real break for a month or 3 now rather than a 'kind of break' where I still actually play some hands and still find myself getting frustrated even though I'm supposedly just playing for fun. The BR basically needs an injection and the mindset needs a reset. I've made a few large purchases recently (wife car being the latest) so disposable income not at its best point right now.

When I'm ready I'll sit down, make some goals about what to play, where to play and at what level, and make an appropriate BR deposit and attempt to rebuild my game again.

I'm open to suggestions though @CrazyCookie or anyone else about where to start the process again. Best way to study (keeping in mind time frame constraints of family, work, exercise/sport etc)...... how to really use PT4 to delve in to potential problems etc.

Running Update May 4th

Continuing to get good miles in. Already clocked 25kms for May with 16kms on Sunday and another 9kms Wednesday. Will be going out tonight (Thursday) for another 10kms so really getting the miles in the legs. Struggling a pit for pace at the moment due to the amount of work I'm doing. Really trying to build that fitness base again but it's coming at the expense of weary legs and a struggle to hit top speed. Probably only had one rest day last week and got nowhere near the time I wanted on my 5km run so I've already had 2 days off this week and will have another on Friday, making it a 4 run week with 3 rest days.

Hopefully when the legs start reaping the benefits from all the miles again and start recovering more quickly that I can then start putting more work in to the speed aspect.




So I've crossed through the 300km barrier for the year now (only 1,200 to go, lol) and pro-rata am about 200kms down on the YTD target of 510kms to this point. That gap is closing every week though and hopefully I can get to the mid year point inside 100kms of the YTD target.

Study: https://www.pokervip.com/coaching-videos/poker-snowie-gto-studying-tool-part-1

Then take hands you find tough and use combonator. Plug in your range and villains. First look at how often villain will have a good-premium hand, how often he will just fold how, see how his ranges changes OTT/OTR to see if you should double or triple barrel a lot or not. Then construct a range to beat his range.
Do the same for different situations on these 8 board textures:

Jc2s6h
AhJs9h
Ts7h3d
KhKd3s
Ah8h2d
8c3h3s
8d4c2s
QsTs7d
Ac2sTd
Tc7c4h
Qs8d2c
6s3s2h

Het MGOP2 (if you haven't already) read it or listen and do the things it suggests regarding A B C game profile, ZONE profile and a warm up. These mental game studies will help your winrate more than anything else.

Set yourself one mental thing to work on one skill to work on at a time (for me it is injecting logic to deal better with aggro players which I now do in my better C game and when playing in level 4 difficulty situations and board texture thinking, does it hit my range? Will villain fold a lot? I again can do this in my better C game and in level 4 spots). Track these improvements in your game through to C game level 5 spots then find something new.

Play without a HUD for a month, your game will improve beyond recognition.

Create ranges from all positions and defense frequencies v opens and 3bets IP and OOP that won't be exploitable and still give you a playable range and use those when playing so you don't end up guessing.


For starting again:

I would first create my ranges then us them to play Snowie PROPERLY for 3 weeks. Use combonator or similar every few study sessions and look at a flop texture or tough Snowie spot. Get used to thinking of your range on board textures and how it can be made so it isn't too exploitable, then move onto villains range and how to exploit it. When you play mix them up depending on boards- super dry boards exploit, dynamic boards villain hits a lot balance your range.

When you get back into playing don't use a HUD just how you would v Snowie, note everything like in MGOP. After a couple of sessions do your A B C game analysis and note down what you feel the ZONE is likely to be.

That is what I did. I've gone from being scared of poker almost and not enjoying it, playing like a robot and tilting everywhere to +€850 playing 20nl in about 40 days moved back up to 50nl and up about €150 an already feel I'm now at the highest level I have ever been. I started studying Snowie first week of March.

GL!

That's great that it's working so well for you and thanks for taking the time to provide a reasonably in depth response. I'll not employ that straight away (as in jump right in today) but will refer back to this post when I'm ready to go again. However what I will do is definitely go through a bit of this before I even hit the tables.

I don't have MGOP2 but I do have the original MGOP. I've tried getting through it twice but always fall away about 2/3 way through. Is the MGOP2 significantly different to the original or would you suggest just working through the one I have for now?

2 is on a completely different concept and is 3x as valuable IMO

Haven't made a poker post for a while and haven't jumped back in as yet, other than a few really quick sessions to pass time more than anything else.

Just been reading @thetallpaul thread and made a post there about my current poker status and rather than re-hashing it here I'll just post up the link.

The poker situation

Better follow up with a running update too. Will do that soon.

That thread has seen some serious action this week! #GoingIn

Running

So I did very little running last week. 7.5km Tuesday and 10km yesterday (Sunday). Clearly the lightest week I've had in about 2 months. I haven't been ill as such but have been flat. Lacking energy, sore in the joints, body aching a lot. Probably a combo of being a little run down and just hitting one of those running flat spots where motivation is low. Not unusual as we start transitioning in to the cold, wet and darker winter months.

Despite falling off the pace to match April's total distance though, I still cracked through 100km for May yesterday and have enough time left to perhaps give 150km for the month a nudge. Currently on 108kms for May.




So pro-rata YTD target is 586kms and I'm currently on 390. Still 196kms behind YTD target but closing the gap, slightly.