Wow! Thank you for sharing! Looking forward to follow your journal. All the respect to you!

That is such an awesome quote!

Best of luck to you!

You told me I have a gift for writing -- oh well, right back at you!

I'm glad that you are now cancer free, and I hope you keep riding the good side of the life variance from now on. Welcome to the site!

-- midori

What an awesome opening post. God bless.

edit. awesome seems like a wrong word since there are some tragic elements in the post. What I wanted to convey was that the post moved me in some way that I can't fully articulate. In that sense it's definitely awe-some.

Thanks for the support, guys! Quick update for this journal: I finished The Big Book of Poker by Ken Warren, which I purchased used from Value Village. I actually really enjoyed this book, despite seeing poor reviews ahead of time on Goodreads. I think this book is great for the absolute beginner, because it helped to resolve the terminology that is a huge barrier to entering the learning curve. The last book I read, though better reviewed, I had to Google a term every few sentences. This one only missed a term every chapter or so, and the glossary was nicely fleshed out. I also liked getting to know various different types of games as well as historical facts and tidbits. Next book up that I'm starting today is Phil Gordon's Little Green Book. I also made flash cards of the outs of common developing hands, and another set of flash cards with pot odds expressed in ratios and percentages, so that I can think a little faster. Since Stars seems to have the fastest played games, I want to get to the point where I can feel comfortable with the computation portion of the program right away (within 8 seconds) so that I can be free to think of other strategy. My kids love quizzing me with the flash cards, so I hope I'll get pretty familiar with the common numbers. Oh, and I also placed 14th out of 85 entrants in a PPPoker tournament organized by a local club, Rev's Poker, which is better than I thought I would do!

Tomorrow I've invited some neighbours over for a casual game of nickel poker. Wish me luck winning friends!

My first home game was a complete success! We had a four-handed game of nickel NLHE, with one spectator sweating the game, and knitting a sweater. Only one lady had been itching to come over, and I basically dragged my boyfriend into the game and then my friend and I badgered two other ladies to come over. One of them has a husband who is a poker player, so I encouraged her to invite him along next time. We had such a fantastic time that two of the ladies have already RSVP'd for next month's poker night, and a new neighbour has joined in. Word is starting to get around already. I didn't keep track of my winnings, but nobody lost their shirt, obviously, as that would be hard to do with nickels. I have a smaller poker night tomorrow with another squad that doesn't get along with the first crew. Wish me luck winning more friends!

Can you believe that I missed a local club's freeroll tournament on PPPoker today? Time got away from me while I was teaching a community class aake a breather to relax and play next time. I didn't do so hot in last Saturday's tournament anyway (I placed 27th out of 85 entrants). In other news, I'm not in the red on Party Poker from my November budget, but I may be soon. I set myself a conservative monthly budget. I may try another site if and when I run out on Party.


In local casino news, a new casino will be opening in Delta in 2020. That's great because there are only three other local casinos with real poker rooms, and I understand they all have waiting lists. I travel frequently to Washington State, so there are a couple casinos there with poker I hope to check out sometime. I'm looking forward to visiting Reno and New Orleans later this month. It will mean missing the Tweet my Seat tournament on 888, but I'll see if I can catch a couple casinos in Reno and one in the Big Easy. Stay tuned.

My second home game was another success. It was just myself, my boyfriend, a friend of mine and her boyfriend. Her boyfriend was our "big spender" at nickel poker, so my boyfriend hoped they wouldn't feel bad that we cleaned up. Luckily, they've already RSVPed to next month's Tuesday poker night, and I have another friend lined up for next month's Saturday poker night too. I did find out that I'm no good at trying to sneak a freeroll tournament game on my phone under the table during a boring Parent Teacher Association meeting, but that's only because I'm the secretary. I ended up having to bail at something like 67th out of 70. Oh well. I'm trying out 888poker this week. I can't wait until RIO comes out.

Oh, and I lost the tournament early by going all in with a full house that was beaten by a better full house, but I should have seen it coming. There were two aces on the board and I didn't have any aces.

I am super stoked to have been selected for RIO Beta testing! I am looking forward to getting my download instructions in time for Tuesday's beta test! They've asked us not to stream yet, so I won't go down that rabbit hole at this time. This week I joined a new Facebook group for Canadian players on Party, but they turned out to be super unfriendly and condescending, so I'll be careful what I comment to that group, since I'm such a n00b. I discovered a new source of Freeroll tournaments, 888. I late regged for an ongoing tournament and clawed my way up to 7th place from 496 before failing to beat the bubble at all after being easily beaten by a set. I had already made a note of that player's aggressive tactics, so I should have known better. At least I'll be good fodder for you all on Tuesday, eh? See you at the tables!

Here is the foolish theory question I need to solve about myself. Why am I so much worse at cash games than tournaments? I went to the Port Moody Library and picked up The Noble Hustle by Whitehead for some light reading. I also finally made it past the bubble on my first tournament, but I don't think I'll be too big headed about my $0.60 winnings just yet. Still, it's a start!

$1.90 for the 13th prize bracket! Well, I more than doubled my tournament winnings, so there's that. I am so happy that RIO is going to employ a 12 minute timer to prevent table camping, because this was ridiculous. I can't seem to enter both of my screencaps here, but it demonstrated 20 minutes worth of approximately an hour, even through the break, that FIVE (5) people camped out at my table. So basically the three of us passed cash around for like 74 minutes until the bubble popped at they were finally booted.

In sad news, I was unable to participate in today's RIO beta. I cleared my schedule, but couldn't get any of the cards or ecovoucher stuff to work in time. I blew up their Support, Discord and Twitter. Support was kind enough to let me know that I would have to wait for ecovoucher to verify my identity, so no luck this time. Next time!

I was able to participate in the Day 2 beta test this week! I had loads of fun. I was surprised at how nicely the game plays so far. I figured since it was fronted by a famous poker player, and not a game designer, it would be... you know... pretty rough. As is, any of the issues I reported were known issues. I suggested an upgrade to the coloured shirt feature to in-game items as tags (a cross between 888 and Zynga), because it would be cute to give a chicken player a teddy bear or a loose player a beer and so on. The dynamic avatars were totally awesome and added a new potentially exploitative element to game play. Also, IRL I am an actual angry hippie.

Fangirl moment. Doug Polk replied to my email! A couple weeks ago he sent a "When Should You Consider Poker Theory?" email challenging readers to guess which example spots were theory-friendly before reading the article. I replied with my guess before clicking through and he replied today: "Nice, you got it right! Only one other person replied correctly, which is pretty crazy considering how easy it was to cheat!"

I've now got an ambitious bankroll goal. $2,350, so that I can participate in the Vancouver Ladies Poker League Poker League of Nations (PLON) BC Poker Series. It's a $50 fee for the year plus $230 for each of the 10 monthly events leading up to the finale to win WSOP registration. I won't reach that goal this year, and probably not the next... few...

Also, I got my IT guy to help me figure out XSplit Broadcaster for Twitch, so you can see us tuning up on my QueenOfDiamonds account. I've also got the StreamLabs app on my phone to try. Looking forward to trying some streaming. Hopefully people are interested in watching me play poorly as I scrabble slowly up the learning curve! You know what they say: There is no elevator to learning poker, you have to take the stairs.

I took a trip down to the States this weekend, which is scary non-online-poker-land since it was into Washington State. I did stop by the Tulalip Casino to enjoy the buffet and peek into the poker room. I was excited to see the real, live regs, with headphones and hoodies and everything. Lowest buy in was $50 USD ($67 CDN) for 1/2 and I had neither the time nor the play money to join in, so I just gazed wistfully. I was jonesing for real poker all weekend.

My Pppoker app still works in the States. 888, Stars, and Party don't. I noticed that Bodog is vulnerable to credential injection, so I'm notifying them of that. If you try to login to the mobile poker it will halfheartedly tell you that you can't from the States and to try Bovada, but then if you go to the main website and login and then refresh the mobile poker page it will recognize your login credentials from the main site. This means that their site is vulnerable to credential injection and that a hacker could impersonate one's credentials on the site. Good to know.

I just finished the book The Noble Hustle: Poker, Beef Jerky and Death by Colson Whitehead. This was a really fun read, and hard to put down. At times the prose had a little bit of a "trying too hard" feel to it, which made me gloss over some pages with a skimming style of reading. Overall was totally worth the read and a delightful find in the library.

Well, I didn't get the Content Creator/Manager position with RIO. Understandably, they are looking to hire somebody with more poker experience than I. Well, I'm still looking forward to attempting to be a StreamR. In preparation for my holiday trip to see family in California, I'm packing Phil Gordon's Little Green Book to finish reading, Hellmuth's Play Poker Like the Pros to re-read, a book on Omaha 8, and a Poker for Dummies book, as well as two other poker books. Looking forward to my trip to Reno on the 27th-29th. The Internet says the best poker rooms near the Sands are the Silver Legacy (4 minute walk to a poker room that is non-smoking 24 hours a day and offers food comps to players) and the Club Cal Neva (8 minute walk, offers food comps). Then, when I get to New Orleans for New Year's, Harrah's Casino will be a 20 minute walk. My family can watch me get crushed by real poker players in Nola's most famous poker room! Minutes on end of fun! Celebrating Yule today and tomorrow. In case I don't see you until I get to Reno, happy Christmas and Kwanzaa, dear reader. Also, if you haven't logged into Pppoker for a while, pop the app open. They have snow and other holiday decorations on the main screen. I have a soft spot in my heart for games that make goofy changes to the UI based on holidays.

Since I am on vacation down in the States I visited a Target to peruse electronics and purchased some Bluetooth headphones. I followed a few more poker podcasts and downloaded a poker audiobook. During this morning's run, I enjoyed the Smart Poker Study podcast and signed up for the interviewee, Steve Fredlund's, RecPoker email list.

I finished Phil Gordon's Little Green Book, which was wonderful but information dense. My plan is to place Post-It note at a principle and practice it before moving on to the next until I can recognize the context and opportunities of each one. The first lesson I am working upon is under the "Common Mistakes" subheading on Page 12. I'll be watching for players that don't bluff enough to attempt to take the pot when they check. I'll report back here with how it goes!

In the meantime, I'll pull a little light reading from my stack of poker books. I've chosen to read Poker for Dummies by Harroch and Krieger while I work on learning Gordon's tips. I picked this book because I'm currently surrounded by 13 family members for the holidays, and I'm hoping they see the big yellow cover and start a conversation with me about poker so that I can talk their ears off.

I already had a lovely long conversation with my 90 year old grandpa (possibly the longest conversation we've ever had) about poker. He said his father used to play penny ante poker at home games. He made marks on the wall about his winnings, and every time he earned $18.75 USD he would buy a war bond. The first time that my great-grandfather asked my young grandfather to join the home game when he was young, he was worried to see the kid betting like crazy until he turned over two deuces to make trips. As an adult, my grandpa used to attend an annual $50 buy-in tournament for 45-54 players at Bass Lake. He and his buddy would stake each other so that, if either one was in the money, they'd share the winnings. My grandfather bragged about placing second once. If you placed in the bottom 10 or 20 you'd have to clean up or cook steaks for everyone else. It was lovely to hear his happy stories and memories.

So far taking the pot when players who don't bluff enough check is working out pretty well! I'll keep working on that one and add Gordon's next Common Mistakes tip to watch for players who overvalue top pair to overbet the pot or play small pocket pairs to try to flop a set against them.

I got 13th place out of 101 in a Pppoker club tournament on Xmas and won $4.25. I held first place for the first 11 minutes though from doubling twice, so that was exciting. I screencapped some of my stats from my profile on there, so I'll have to Google some of those and figure them out in another post.

While jogging the past couple days I've listened to Poker Stories and the Poker Guys, and am now listening to another episode of Thinking Poker. KL Cleeton (HighHands89 on Twitch) was mentioning "Turn Thursdays" as a way to study and it made me think that's a pretty cool way to study long-term. What do you think? Money Management Mondays? Tilt Tuesdays? Heads Up Humpday? Turn Thursdays? Flop Fridays? Seat Saturdays? Short Stack Sundays? I smell a blog or a vlog or something.

On my way out I spotted a card room called Stones five minutes from my grandparents' house. I should take my grandpa out there next time. I've arrive in Reno now and checked in to the Sands. Joined the player's club at Sliver Legacy and Cal Neva. Ready to roll?

Live casino games are so fast, and the players don't light up when it's their turn, like online! I did observe the "glance down at chips" tell on card reveals was totally legit, but I was too green to do anything with that information. Overall, I know that a tonne of information went right over my head due to inexperience and nerves tilt.

OK, so here's what I learned at the 1/3 cash game at Silver Legacy... First of all, I'm pretty sure there was some Russians laundering money there. Second of all, I was foolish not to jam pre with pocket aces. I was nervous to death, but had fun playing for a couple hours. I like Silver Legacy for the nonsmoking card room, the multitude of appetizing restaurants, the classy atmosphere and the comedy club. Shout out to my very first casino live game dealer, Curt, who was a sweetheart.

At Cal-Neva I picked up a fistful of issues of Ante Up Magazines, since we don't have those in Canada. They had a $10 tournament which the manager said was a "glorified home game" and he was right. I had a lot of fun for another couple hours and even coaxed my boyfriend to give it a whirl. I was having such a good time that I made the mistake of not going All-In as soon as I should have. There were weird little mini-games at the breaks for more chips. The homey atmosphere and incredibly relaxed and friendly dealers were wonderful. Overall, it was a very affordable lesson in tournament play. I've got enough time and spending money in my budget for one more tourney before we head for our next destination.

I spent the nearly four hour flight from California to Louisiana listening to the Molly's Game by Molly Bloom audiobook and studying outs and odds by drilling flash cards. The flight attendant even asked me about it after reading some of my flash cards over my shoulder. Later, this paid off with some more game theory optimal decisions at the table, so I'll be drilling those again on the flight home. The book is a novel about poker just for fun, of course, but I'm amassing quite the reading list.

I have been having great fun in New Orleans, the place where poker first landed when it was brought to the United States by the French. I'm staying in the French Quarter and played a little 4/8 limit hold'em at Harrah's. I had a lot of fun for a little over an hour after waiting about twenty minutes for a seat. It was awesome that there was no smoking, and I sat between a solid regular named Andrea and a nice guy named Robert who was visiting family down here for the holidays. The game moved a little slower than in Nevada, and I was able to breathe and enjoy some free hot tea. The buffet was amazing, so give it a whirl if you come here. I felt like I made some good decisions today (for a n00b, anyway), and I'm content for now, despite playing stakes that are way out of my league. Vacation ends in a couple more days, and it's back to micro-stakes and play money for me!

I'm back from my trip, refreshed, having studied outs and odds flash cards for another three hours on the plane ride home. The patterns in the numbers are beginning to become memorable enough to use in play, and now it's just a matter of fighting against the pull to slide into old habits. Thank goodness I've only been practicing these particular bad habits for a year, and not more. I'm at the delightful point of "my brain is full," in that I'm at a surplus of study material that needs time to practice before I can skillfully move forward. This is another reason why I love poker. There will never be a point in time where I can say I'm done with learning. Instead, I move back to the minimum stakes and start to establish a baseline so that I can calculate my standard deviation. So far I'm doing better than I have before, but I'll need more hands to know for sure.

I hosted January's first Neighbourhood Poker Night at my home last night. Two of the ladies invited their husbands, warning me that their men were poker sharks. Indeed, one of them took home a larger pile of nickels, but I did well on account of beginner's luck. It was my first time with four of a kind, and I was lucky enough to have everyone betting into me. One of my friends said that her goal for the evening was to get invited to her husband's "man game" poker game. That became my goal as well. Tuesday is my next home game of the year. I've also done a little streaming on my QueenOfDiamonds channel on Twitch, but need to get the audio sorted next time. I'm glad that I'm working out the technical kinks before RIO launches. I've also figured out how to port over the videos successfully to YouTube, so I'm almost ready to be a StreamR. My boyfriend had an interesting idea about streaming a home game tournament as well, but we got lost in a debate about how to handle rebuys and prizes while staying within the boundaries of the law and not getting in over our heads here. He suggested a rebuy that permanently reduces your final score by an equal number of points. In related news, I've discovered a delightful new podcast called Top Pair that is all about home games.

Have you guys tried the hilarious videos 888 makes to showcase your play for the week? I highly recommend them for a laugh. There's wailing guitars and a British voice-over. I think this week's version even made sly reference to my penis envy with the quote, "It's not the size of the man, it's the size of the pot."

Anyway, I've managed to bluff more with those who overvalue top pair. This principle took longer for me to practice, for obvious reasons of long observation times necessary. The next thing I'm going to work on is to focus on players who underbet the pot and punish them for their draws with a call or raise. I was just struggling with the ability to adjust my own bets, so this will give me a good excuse to figure out how to bet 3BB on all the sites I play, some of which make it far easier to bet in relation to the pot than to the BB. Lookin' at you, Stars.

Yesterday I stopped by Cascades casino to check out their poker room. The 1/3 list was 50 people long, so the manager recommended that I call ahead if I want to play.

So, I've been paying attention to players who underbet and focusing more on my bet sizes. The results have been pretty good so far, depending of course on what type of players are at the table. The next principle in Phil Gordon's book is to watch for people who tighten up near the bubble during tournaments. I'll try this next tournament I play and let you know how it goes. I didn't do well at a Pppoker tournament yesterday (finished 45 out of 107) because I was tilting over the first prize winner getting a seat at a satellite for a Montreal tourney trip. That would have been so cool, so I got super nervous. Boneheaded moves featured over at my QueenOfDiamonds Twitch channel now.

I finished reading The Biggest Game in Town by Al Álvarez. This book is very similar to The Noble Hustle: Poker, Beef Jerky, and Death by Colson Whitehead, but is not contemporary. I enjoyed being taken back to the 1980's casino days through the author's vibrant prose, though it wasn't always flattering. The vignettes about famous poker players gave these figures life. I want to read his other book, Poker: Bluffs, Bets, and Bad Beats.

You can measure the intrinsic feeling you get from gambling. Everybody has these subtle energies floating around inside. Some people get through their whole lives sublimating them, repressing them. But there are gamblers here who don't sublimate them; they let them out.

Sky Matsuhashi allows players to ask one poker question when they join his email list. Mine was about what to record when playing live and online mixed and not using a HUD. Well, now it looks like I need Poker Tracker 4! Also, he gave me a lot of info to record during live play, and I'll have to try it out, but I'm worried about all the information I'll miss at the table when scribbling notes. There's only so much you can jot down while the dealer is shuffling. What do you write down? I'm thinking maybe of creating a bullet journal with the things Sky recommends or using Poker Notes Live and seeing how that goes. What works for you?

I've been doing well at making notes about players who call too much. Now I'm still working on watching for players who squeeze too much when they're on the bubble. There's a Pppoker tournament tomorrow night where I should be able to pay attention.

I got permission from four Podcast producers to use their podcasts in the background on my Twitch streams on my QueenOfDiamonds channel. The Poker Guys, Tournament Poker Edge, The Mindset Advantage, Red Chip Poker, Sky Matsuhashi from Smart Poker Study, Ross Henry from DAT Poker Podcast, and Andrew Brokos from Thinking Poker. I also recently enjoyed a webinar on Post-Flop Leak Plugging by Sky. Super glad to have something in the background when my sweetheart isn't streaming beside me on his computer. If you can't tell, I'm super pumped for the StreamR program to launch!

I chatted with a checkout clerk at a store about poker. Apparently he used to play Stars, but after having kids got busy. He sort of trailed off after that. I totally understand. Another week, another hilariously upbeat personal stats video from 888. So, how does everybody else choose to fit poker study and play into their day? I'm currently fascinated with poker, so my day always includes at least one of these things and usually about 4, but a theoretical perfect "poker" day might include all of them.

8am - Wake up and open up Pppoker to collect daily reward. Maybe practice flashcards.
9:30am - Get in the car and listen to poker podcasts on the day's drives.
10am - Run on the treadmill at the gym while playing with playmoney on my phone or listening to poker podcasts on my headphones or watching WPT on the treadmill SportsNet.
12pm - For a treat, I might eat lunch while watching WPT on SportsNet at Vera's Burger Shack. If I have the extra time and ticket, play a tournament on 888 in the afternoon. If Doug Polk has sent out his weekly email article or quiz, I do that. If I'm visiting my parents, we might play Rummoli together.
7pm - Tuesdays and Thursdays I play a Pppoker tournament with a local club.
8pm - Stream poker for an hour or two on my Twitch QueenOfDiamonds channel or host a home game with some friends in my neighbourhood one Saturday and Tuesday a month.
10pm - Play a short poker video on YouTube while winding down for bed.
10:15pm - Curl up in bed with a poker book.

This is Sky Matsuhashi's "System for Poker Success." I've been enjoying his Smart Poker Study podcast and have entered to win a free coaching session. His latest email to the list has a journal fodder suggestion, so here I am journaling from my hotel room on a vacation to Victoria, BC. Here's what I'll do for each step...

1. Set SMART Goals
   Okay, Sky says "if no one laughs at your goals, they're not big enough, so here goes. Beat Microstakes NLHE online within 3 months. Beat 1/3 live within 6 months. Bankroll $2,350 CDN within 12 months for the Vancouver Women's Poker League (Poker League of Nations) satellites for WSOP. These goals are specific and measurable, but I don't think they're particularly reasonable or attainable. I think that a more reasonable and attainable goal would be simply to beat microstakes online within 6 months.

2. Study
   I outlined my day in the last post, so basically my study tools include (in order of volume of use): Books, podcasts, flashcards, and videos.

3. Play, Play, Play
   I've got online tournaments at least twice a week, and I'm working towards streaming one or two hours of cash games 5-6 days a week. That should give me approximately 7-16 hours of online play a week. I make enough extra poker money for a live buy-in maybe once every couple of months.

4. Fix Your Leaks
   I've got an awful lot of leaks right now, which I mostly identify through losing, uncomfortable spots, and surprise spots. I've been going through Phil Gordon's book one principle at a time to begin catching some basic leaks. Yeah, yeah, I know... PT4 is on my list to one day get to better track my progress.

5. Reward Yourself
   Right now live play is a huge reward.

6. Commit to Improving Your Game
   I will become a winning poker player through hard work, practice, and study.

7. Assess Your Progress
   I'm tracking my "win rate" er... it will become a win rate... right? I've a few basic session numbers that I'll aggregate into monthly data. When I have enough of a sample size, I'll calculate my standard deviation.

Time to hide Play Poker Like The Pros before the neighbours get here for my home game tonight! We might have up to four new players tonight, so that's cool. I'm re-reading Hellmuth's book because I read it for the first time back in 2017 and I'm pretty sure most of it went over my head at that stage.

Awesome to read your journal and im impressed with your workethics! :)

The poker book pile on my nightstand is reaching towering proportions. I will read them all.

I've been looking for Phil Gordon's tip that people tighten up before the bubble in tournaments, but I've determined that in the freerolls in which I participate, that phenomenon is just not observable by me right now. So, I'm going to keep that in mind and jump to the next principle to study from Gordon's Little Green Book. The next thing I will practice is bet sizing. My standard raise is 3BB (6 cents in 2NL). Phil Gordon recommends 2.5x-3x (5-6 cents) in early position, 3x-3.5x (6-7 cents) for middle position, 3.5x-4.0x (7-8 cents) for late position, and 3x (6 cents) for the small blind.

Since I've tightened up my ranges, I also decided to work on my ranges in order to get out of a confusion rut. I printed out Doug Polk's preflop raise charts and taped them all to my wall in a circle representing positions. It looks like I am a mad conspiracy theorist or something; all that's missing are the thumbtacks and string connecting them randomly. I practiced using them while streaming on Twitch. I'm going to continue the experiment until I've largely committed them to memory, so if you're interested in seeing Polk's raise charts being used, give QueenOfDiamonds on Twitch a follow.

Also, we've got a Run It Once beta tomorrow! Are you as pumped as I am?

You guyssssssss I feel like the RIO launch is coming soon! RIO is running a contest in /r/poker on Reddit and just had a beta last over 24 hours, including high roller stakes. All this activity suggests they're nearing launch readiness. They also released a new blog post saying their next blog post will include a launch date! Their blog posts average 2 months apart, so perhaps we'll see an announcement this spring?

So, my experiment with Doug Polk's recommended ranges and Phil Gordon's recommended bet sizing is working out pretty well so far. I've streamed three sessions on this experiment (QueenOfDiamonds on Twitch) and I plan to keep at it until I've memorized the positional ranges and bet sizing.

My next Phil Gordon principle on which to focus will be to call limpers when I have position and hands like suited aces, suited connectors, and small or medium pocket pairs. Those are usually my raising ranges, but I'll experiment with calling in this situation and see what happens.

zOMGz launch date you guyyyyyysssss! I inquired on Twitter if there are any review sites on which they'd like us to make posts and was encouraged that, "tweets, posts on forums, chatting with friends, they all help us." We're also allowed to stream the public beta at launch! So, this is not a drill. Please follow me at QueenOfDiamonds on Twitch. I will be streaming RIO on launch day and as much as possible thereafter. To become a Twitch affiliate I need 50 followers (currently at 16) and an average of 3 viewers (currently at 1.56). To qualify as a StreamR for Run It Once I need 200 watch hours per month (currently at 37.08). Also, the inevitable happened and one of my opponents on 888 followed me on Twitch. Thank my lucky stars for the five minute delay, but he's also much better than me, so next time I see him on 888 I will just throw chips and a trophy at him and run away.

In other news, this week I reached 11th place in a Pppoker tournament and won $0.45USD on another tournament on 888. There won't be tourneys on RIO at launch, but that's cool with me. This will be a good opportunity for me to improve my 6 Max game. This week I'll also be experimenting with Phil Gordon's advice about playing from the Big Blind, since I've been using Doug Polk's raise charts which are conspicuously lacking the Big Blind. He suggests raising the limpers or creating a "chip sandwich" when there's an early raise and then a number of callers. He suggests trying this when down to about 15 big blinds, but not with an A or K with small kicker.

Okay, it's officially after midnight in Malta..... nnnnnnow! Anything? Anything? Is it wrong that I postponed my lunch date with my mom until Thursday so that I can stream RIO all day tomorrow? Who else is going to be playing on launch day?

https://www.twitch.tv/queenofdiamonds

Im gonna out you here QOD ;)

I streamed for four hours today, making today my longest stream session by far. I wanted to participate in RIO's social media giveaway, so I waited until I got AA and went All-In while taking a selfie. I was also pretty pleased to flop a set of 9s. Splash the pot turned out to be pretty cool, although at some tables people seemed to get overly excited, making pot odds terrible despite the inflated pot. I've got plans with friends in the meatspace tonight, so no more streaming for now. Tomorrow I'll be back on after my kids' bedtime streaming RIO! I can't wait until they have a mobile app for iOS. I'm now finding other RIO streamers on Twitch and adding them to my autohost queue so that my channel will be mostly RIO content. Drop your username in here if you're another prospective StreamR looking to play mostly RIO on Twitch!

I just figured out that you need to apply to be a StreamR through RunItOnce.eu so I've officially sent in my application! Wish me luck! Now, off to join Jonathan Little's webinar on "Combating Overly Aggressive, Almost Maniacal Players."

I kitted out my Twitch stream with Run It Once assets from the tutorial. I'm glad I did because tonight I was the #1 RIO streamer, I was told in chat! It turns out that people don't mind sweating a bumbling beginner's game. I earned a handful of new followers. I hope that I earn a place as a StreamR and get some more guidance and help building a community, because this is pretty cool! Anyway, I have to get ready to bed and get reading. Take a look at all the poker books on my nightstand right now. Just kidding, I added one more poker book today that I bought at Value Village, so it's even more ridiculous than yesterday's photo featured here.

Well, the RIO servers are down, so it's time to write in my poker journal! I was right in the middle of a recorded session that I'm going to send to the RIO team for review. Phil Galfond himself posted on Twitter saying that some play will get review and commentary in an upcoming video. I hope they choose me! Despite the photo of the towering pile of books in the previous post, I have actually made it through some of the books recently.

I've read Play Poker Like The Pros by Hellmuth for the second time now, a year apart. I was better able to understand the concepts a year later. That said, this book is still poorly edited. There were too many parenthetical asides and other basic readability issues. All things considered, I will still use this book by going through the Limit Hold'em Beginners Strategy and Limit Hold'em: Intermediate Strategy sections by subheading, trying out each of the concepts in turn as I am doing with Phil Gordon's Little Green Book: Lessons and Teachings in No Limit Texas Hold'em. I now know enough not to touch the Advanced sections, since I don't yet have the judgement. When I get around to attempting PLO, I will try using Hellmuth's suggested starting hands.

I also read Poker for Women: A Course in Destroying Male Opponents at Poker-- And Beyond. This book was a laugh a minute and I can easily see why Mike Caro is called "The Mad Genius of Poker." This is the only book written by a man that qualifies as a feminist anthem on its own. I love how he extends the concepts of poker to life in general, for a philosophical feel. The book is written for an absolute beginner, so I didn't really learn anything groundbreaking. Also, NLHE is my game, and apparently it was new on the scene in the 80's when he wrote this book and he seems rather butthurt about it. Too bad! I'd love for him to grab a female co-author (moi, perhaps?) and write a second edition featuring Hold'em!

Now I'm reading Hold'em Wisdom for all Players: Simple and Easy Strategies to Win Money by Daniel Negreanu. What are you reading? What's on your bookshelf or nightstand?

It is so snowy that I was trapped at a random motel by the highway last night. The kids and I fell asleep like a pile of puppies in one bed after I finished reading Hold'em Wisdom for all Players: Simple and Easy Strategies to Win Money by Daniel Negreanu.

This book was a fun read. I don't know if much of the advice works anymore, since I read the edition published back in 2007, but it was well written and well edited. This is a welcome change from most poker books. This book seemed to be like a companion to most poker books that include the basics. It shouldn't be the only poker book you read if you're trying to learn how the game works, but I'd recommend it anyway!

Is it still called "running bad" if your recent downtrend is due to your own decisions and not luck? I guess it's called tilt instead. Whatever it is, I've been on that lately. You can see it written in the video over at my Twitch channel. Nothing like having a home game with my friends to cheer me up about it, though. I was really able to see how much of my errors are still on the basics of slowing down and reading the board properly, since I made two mistakes at the table with them last night and they called me out on it! We had a good time and it gave me encouragement for improvement. I haven't hit a plateau... I'm still too much of a beginner for that!

I finished reading Online Poker: Your Guide to Playing Online Poker Safely & Winning Money by Doyle Brunson and Andy Glazer. The reviews about this book is right that the first third of the book is just an advertisement using Brunson's name. He admits that the online poker room bearing his name during the era was not owned by him, they just paid him handsomely for branding. This book was historically interesting. In Chapter 3 he foretells the Black Friday that outlawed online poker in most of the United States four years later. He writes of the biggest online room being Party Poker and of a new up and coming site, Poker Stars. I'm going to take away one interesting idea from this book, and it's to watch for the instant checking that happens when people select the check/fold button, not that many people in the microstakes sandbag anyway.

This is my battle station! Ring game ranges up above and six max down below. Odds and outs to the left. Things are about to get more complicated because I just printed out another range chart from Adam Jones (Weasel) on Red Chip. I love their podcast! I am reading through the NLHE Written Course now, starting from Beginner, of course! See ya' on Twitch!

Also on the topic of podcasts, two of my podcasts this week asked me to leave reviews. Unfortunately, PodBean app doesn't let you review podcasts for some reason, so I'll review them here:

Smart Poker Study by Sky Matsuhashi: One of my favourite podcasts, for sure! Sky does such a great job being an encouraging teacher. His podcast is family friendly, and people at all levels of poker study will find at least one kernel of wisdom that they can take to the felt for the week. He's also an accomplished author and his books are on my list. His mixed and balanced approach to poker is appealing and easy to understand. I am a big fan and his is the first podcast I hit when I have a crop of episodes from which to choose.

Poker Central Podcast: These guys are a real authentic hub of the contemporary poker community and they have their finger on the pulse of everything happening in the poker world. That said, their constant attempts to be edgelords with their f-bombs and dick jokes just comes off as cringy. I get that they're trying to be down-to-earth and provide content for adults, but it sucks that I can't listen to it in the car with my kids or in the background of my family-friendly Twitch stream. I wish they'd just grow up. I'll keep listening, though.

Tonight at 6pm Pacific Jonathan Little has a free webinar about "How to Play from the Small Blind Against a LAG". Maybe I'll see some of you there!

I made a video clip of a 1000BB splashed pot from the other day. It's hilarious! I also tried Phil Helmuth's suggestion of sometimes re-raising small pairs pre-flop, with catastrophic results. I'll be moving on to a new principles, how to play Ax. Hellmuth says: Don't call 3-bets, call one bets (or 2 bets except to raise a jackal/maniac with ATs/AJs). I've also been observing Phil Gordon's rule that 4 bets means aces. Now I am going to be observing for when opponents are pot-committed to not bluff or chase speculative hands.

I've completed Adam Jones' Beginner section of his NLHE written course. Implied odds seem like just a way to disguise optimistic guessing as math. Anyone here prove me wrong? See you on Twitch!

Oh, and I joined the Women's Poker Association. I want to be an Ambassador!

Nice Blog!

Implied odds can be calculated explicitly. Calling a with a FD against a pot sized bet needs 2/3 pot bet on the next street to break even, for example. They are a super important part of poker! You can also factor in fold equity on later streets.

You also want to factor in things like ability to take the pot away on turns and rivers. This is commonly referred to as floating.

FD = flush draw :D

So, I won from RIO for #FunPlaySunday with this hand! I'm so excited because I really needed the money to keep up the current volume of practice. I'm not quite a reliable winner yet and my monthly poker budget was going to make me need to slow down my volume. Saved by RIO! Phil Galfond himself commented: "€100 - for the quick and instinctive decision making in [this video] too bad he had the top pair beat, but you set yourself well up for the FPS-competition!"

In other news, I'm still working through Adam Jones' Intermediate NLHE course. This is full of vital information on stealing preflop, protection betting, bluffing and semi-bluffing and especially value betting. I have a new Post-It note at my command centre with his value betting advice and I'm working in my sessions now to decrease the donk betting that I've mistaken for aggression.

My current principle from Phil Hellmuth is in his section on playing Ax where he encourages calling a preflop reraise with Ax suited (normally I would fold). My current principle from Phil Gordon is to notice when a player is pot committed. I'm still reading Mike Caro's Hold'em book, but right now I'm going back to reading Adam Jones' NLHE course Intermediate section on Flop Play. I hope to stream on Twitch tonight after the kids go to bed at 8, so see you there!

Expected Value calculation + Algebra to find the break even point.
Poker has a lot of math.

Today I feel a lot of love for the poker community and, in particular, the RIO community. The poker community in general has been super friendly towards a fish such as I. This week I've had a little extra help from people stopping by my Twitch channel to offer help as simple as telling me to bet more with QQ. Some of my friends here (shout out to Investhor and Chowzor) have helped out significantly more via Discord. I've been studying poker all day and here's hoping some of it sticks in my brain. I finished the Intermediate section of Adam Jones' NLHE course. Some of it was over my head while some of it was badly needed and came just in time. Next I'll get to study a more comfortable section, Math! For now, I've got a Thursday Tourney with the Pppoker club to join! See you on Twitch tonight.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

One Time Poker is running a "Become A Pro" competition that I ran across on Instagram, so I applied just for fun. My poker dream job is to be a prop, after all. I'm still working towards StreamR status with RIO. I've got 52 followers on Twitch now, which is nifty. I'm only at 105 out of 200 watch hours, though, so I really need more viewers. If you see me live on Twitch, please consider leaving me on as background noise so that I can reach my goal!

Meanwhile, I've been studying with InvesThor and reading through Adam Jones' NLHE written course. I finished the math section and am working on the psychology section, so here's a journaling exercise!

1. Which types of tilt affect me? Why? How?
   Body tilt, distraction tilt, and loss tilt.
2. Give examples of things that happen which send me on tilt.
   Body tilt of being hungry or needing move my body. Distraction tilt because of my kids needing or wanting attention. Loss tilt if I see a big number as a loss in my log book at the end of a session.
3. How do I feel when affected by this type of tilt? Give examples of some thoughts. (E.g It’s impossible to make money at this game when the fish always suck out.)
   I feel a lack of motivation to commit volume when I experience tilt.
4. How does the tilt affect my strategic decisions at the table? Give examples.
   I might choose to end a session early or play more conservatively.
5. Write down a reason why my tilt or my thoughts are illogical. Alternatively write down a plan of action.
   My loss tilt is illogical because of course I'm going to lose while I'm learning. My plan of action is to try to eat and go for a run before a session. If my kids are around (like during the summer) I will sit down with them to explain the importance of my concentration on poker and I will plan regular breaks to address their needs so that they know when mom will next be available.

It has been an exciting week! Not only have I been getting some awesome coaching from InvesThor, but I've actually got a Twitch viewer who wants to stake me in a tournament! I'm one step closer to being the world's worst professional poker player. Now, if only I could get a job as a prop. I guess If I manage this StreamR thing that's the closest I could come! They reset the watch hour count in March, so now I have 8 out of 200 watch hours for the month. Obviously I need some more fans on Twitch. Tonight I have a home game with my neighbours, so wish me luck!

And now, another journaling exercise from the Adam Jones NLHE course.

• What does it feel like when I’m in the zone?
  I feel pleasant; calm and happy yet alert.
• Does time slow down or speed up?
  Time speeds up. I lose time playing poker.
• How do my thought processes differ compared to when not in the zone?
  When I'm not in the zone I'm easily distractable. I find myself checking the clock.
• Which aspects of poker become easier when I am in the zone?
  When I am in the zone I am less likely to be emotionally affected by loss and I have a more joyful time.
• When I am I most likely to reach the zone?
  When I've had a good run and a good meal before I play.
• What kind of things may cause me to fall out of the zone?
  Hunger and exhaustion, distracting things going on in the room.

It's the week of various contests! I missed the opportunity to win money for #MidStakesWeek, but I did enter the silly username contest even though my username is actually super coolbeans. Solve For Why ran a contest in which you were to show them a visual representation of your poker goals. They were going for a vision board style collage, but instead I submitted a comic of me winning the Main Event of the WSOP, turning to the cameras, and telling my ex-husband to go to hell. One Time Poker is running a contest to win a pro position as an ambassador on their site. They're awarding three 6-month contracts that include tournament staking based on an essay I submitted, site engagement, and sign ups acquired through my affiliate link from now until the end of April. So, if you need more poker sites, or if you just love collecting welcome bonuses, please consider signing up through my link: https://record.otppartners.com/_q5h4xISYMFhhg6WO2I1rgWNd7ZgqdRLk/1/

Can I let you all in on a secret? My ex-husband just broke up with the girl he left me for, a former good friend of mine, and she's moving 3,000 kilometers away. I'm trying really hard not to feel mean-spirited joy right now. Like Mike Caro says, every new hand you play you're "even" again.

I finished working slowly through a re-read of Gordon and Hellmuth's books, slowly putting each principle into practice. As you guys advised about old books, much of it was hit or miss, but I got a lot of food for thought and found several plays that occasionally work against some players, so that's good. I'm taking a break from most books right now because I received a free Essential membership here on RIO for playing RIO Poker. Sadly, I'm actually TERRIBLE at learning from videos, and they're my least favourite media from which to learn. It's kind of torture leaving my books gathering dust so that I can grind through as many videos as I can this month, but I know RIO content is very valuable and highly sought after in the poker community, so I'm going to suck it up and do it.

I've got 172 watch hours left to go on Twitch before I reach Level 1 StreamR status. Do you think I can do it?

It can be a bit hard in the beginning to learn from videos but there are a huge variety of videos, live play, theory concepts, mental game etc. Just sit down with a pen and a paper and make frequent pauses to think about what the coach is saying and you will be fine! Recomended: Tommy Angelos videos.

How are you doing?? :)

It's been an awesome week, you guys! I went on vacation to Harrison Hot Springs and I got engaged! I also managed to accidentally achieve affiliate status on Twitch while working towards my goal of 200 watch hours. I participated in the #SaturdaySprint, even though I only played 615 hands (that's a lot for me) while walking 7km on my treadmill desk. I only have 6 watch hours to go before reaching Level 1 StreamR status this month! I can do this!

Good news! I have achieved 202 watch hours streaming almost exclusively RIO Poker! Bad news... I assumed that my StreamR application hadn't been accepted because I didn't have enough watch hours only to find that I missed some onboarding email in which I was supposed to learn that I was supposed to log all my hours as I went along. Unfortunately, that means I may be screwed for March. I am totally bummed because I worked my butt off to reach the goal of being a Level 1 StreamR. I emailed support and I can only hope that the fact that I've been such a big supporter all along will allow them to find some way to credit me. Like, perhaps they can check how many hours I have been playing RIO? I am just... so crestfallen. I guess there's always next month. :(

Customer support came through for me as heroes and I am officially a Level 1 StreamR for March! What's more, I've just been accepted as an official Women's Poker Association Brand Advocate. I am looking forward to the days ahead. My learning has already progressed by leaps and bounds as a beginner. I know the grind to continue improving will be a slow, long haul, but I am eager to do the work.

I've been working on playing button strategy postflop vs BB and/or SB and it has been rough. I'm going to stick with it, though, because the concepts I am learning are sound, I'm just clumsy and rushed because it is all new to me. I'm getting slaughtered. So, if you want free money, make sure to stop by 4NL and go fishing for me! :)

I have been busy studying! I have been replaying hand histories of my coach on Poker Tracker 4 and Hand2Note and it is amazing to learn. I have been practicing 3-handed and Heads Up play from the button on RIO. I have made it a goal to study hand histories for an hour a day if possible, On top of that, I am running 30 minutes a day on Runkeeper with Gillian Epp and to write my novel for Camp NaNoWriMo.

Also, I just joined a new poker social network available through the app store called First Land of Poker. Add me on there! Look me up by my last name, Chauran.

I got to present a PowerPoint about poker this weekend! Yes, some friends of mine hosted a high tea party in which we each got to present about an esoteric topic. I presented some poker basics to a room full of poker muggles and got at least one person interested! Even though they live far away, she's going to try to come to one of my home games. I'm very pleased that I'm doing the work of the Women's Poker Association ambassador that I am. Internationally even!

I got my rakeback from RIO! Almost an entire buy-in! I also applied to be a city partner for PPPoker, since they need Canadians. If I can help them with the language barrier I will be happy.

My Tuesday home game was postponed, so I did some more streaming. I have another home game on Saturday that I plan to livestream.

Patrik Antonius himself noticed that I had nearly a hundred friends on FLOP days after its release. Yeah, I'm a gemini.

In other news, I have been really busy studying hand histories. I have been hitting a goal of an hour a day. I am also spending half an hour a day running this month. A fellow poker player and I are in this goal together and are sharing our runs on Runkeeper.

I finished out the month of Essential membership I won on RIO. I watched as many videos as I could during that time but, to be honest, I am glad to get back to my preferred forms of media for a while!

I had an idea for StreamR collaboration last night at my home game, so hear me out. What if... we do a dual stream at the same time. We each open at least one table. The stakes don't have to be the same. Then, we have an audio link by Skype or Phone and I could ask you interview questions (you can always ask me questions too, if you like, but I'm a beginner so I won't have meaningful answers). It would be sort of like a podcast but done while chatting over our different respective poker tables, just as if we were chatting at the same home game. I'm open to other collaboration ideas as well, if you think this one is lame. Post your colab ideas in a reply and let's make our StreamR collaboration dreams come true!

So, I've interviewed today for a Canada City Partner role as a Market Manager based in Canada. PPPoker is going to send me some swag and digital assets and I'll be good to go. If I manage to get 3 different people to sign up for a club on PPPoker in a month, they'll give me a salary! It's free to sign up and it is a good way to run home games online when you all can't get together on the regular. Those who sign up can give me their club number and I can award them in-game currency to use, plus help give them support via WhatsApp in order to get their club running profitably. AMA about PPPoker! If I don't know the answer, I'll ask them.

I've been working on reviewing my coach's hand histories for all positions for spins. I'm pretty clunky and slow with them now, but I remember how slow I used to be when just interpreting the button's play. I'll get there. I just need a lot more hours and to keep with it.

Have you all already read Applications of NLHE by Janda? That book is legendary and seems like a bible for GTO. I'm taking notes while wading through the dense material, but I feel like I'll need to re-read this book at different stages in my advancement. I'll get more out of it each time that I read it. I'm working with an electronic copy now, but I might purchase a hard copy that I can mark up.

On the "just for fun" front, I applied to be a host for Thirst Lounge on Twitch, now that Catrific has stepped down following that whole debacle. If you haven't stayed plugged into the podcast news, Catrific was seated at the wrong table at a tourney and ended up playing the main event instead of a smaller buy-in. She got in huge trouble with the poker community for not reporting the error right away. Anyhoo, I know I probably won't be selected due to my small stakes, but it was fun to make a video clip anyway.

I just finished reading Applications of No-Limit Hold'em by Janda. This book is ama-a-a-azing. It is now my favourite poker book. I really loved all the math and logical thought processes. The book was dense, which means I'm going to have to read it multiple times. I think that, as I learn more in this game, each new layer of understanding will peel back a new epiphany. I want to buy two copies of this book... One Kindle version so that I can make highlights and see what other readers have highlighted, and one softcover copy that I can mark up the margins and flag different sections for further study and basically take it with me everywhere like a Bible. Fun read for sure. I can see why others recommend it.

You know what's really cool about Run It Once? They let you keep your StreamR level even if you don't keep up the numbers in the subsequent month, just like Twitch does. That's really cool of them and also gives me even more incentive to shoot for Level 2.

I just finished the book Poker Winners Are Different by Alan N. Schoonmaker. It was recommended by somebody I respect, but I didn't really enjoy it. It was pretty heavy-handed and harsh, and that alone would be fine. However, the author also made some weird assumptions that made me question the rest of the book. Also, as an author myself, I could really tell when he was reaching and stretching for word count with every subheading, using words and phrases repeatedly as if this were a series of SEO articles. It was kind of painful to read. The good thing about this book was that it was organized well (a lot of lists like clickbait top ten articles) and had reader engagement through the use of quizzes (just like in Seventeen Magazine). I'm glad that I read the book, I just wouldn't recommend it to anyone I didn't actively dislike.

I finally went to a local casino for the first time, Grand Villa in Burnaby. I worked up the nerve because a friend was already there on a date and two other friends wanted to go there to play slots, even though one of them comes to my home games. Anyway, I signed up on the wait list and was told it would be about two hours long. When I got the text after only one hour, I was excited and ran there just to find out that my text hadn't arrived in a timely manner. Luckily, somebody put me back on the list. I only had time to play for an hour, but I sat down excited and nervous. I was shaking so hard that people thought I had no idea how to play and were throwing their chips at me. I won my first hand with a pair of nines, Ace kicker, against Ace high. Someone at the table said, "Don't let him bully you! He's a bully! I luckboxed a $250 profit playing $1/$3 that hour. With pocket sixes I hit a six on the turn and then got to go All In for the first time at a casino! The guy to my right stood up and said, "this is a bullshit table" and left. When the clock reached 11pm I stood up and announced that it was my bedtime and hit the cashier. I can't wait to go back and work on grinding my bankroll up to something proper.

UPDATE! Almost 4 years later, I'm still in the game. Now I'm in PokerDetox CFP in Division 1 playing 6max cash games. I guess you could say things are getting pretty serious between poker and I! Just graduated from training and got my stake, so I'm going to start grinding a 60k hand sample on April 1st at 100NL, and maybe even start streaming again soon! I'm going to use this as a bullet journal now to log my study and play and keep track of my progress. I've already studied today 125 minutes before logging, but now we gonna' log the rest of the day below as we go, as I found this helpful in the Trainee Discord to keep myself accountable.

Fitness: �� Had to take a nap during my "health hour."
Nutrition: ��
Sleep: ��
Mindset: �� Motivated to start studying Flop Defense for a whole month!

25min: CheckDecide drill BBvBTN 1/3 score 82% ��️
25min: Training Video BBvBTN cbet 2BP
25min: Continued watching vid and taking notes.
25min: Continued.
25min: Finished video, Anki flashcards Facing Flop Bet (finished deck), reviewed notes.

Fitness: :) 30min run, long walk, signed up for a personal trainer! Yves Dubois!
Nutrition: :) Smoothie game is strong
Sleep: :) 8hrs 27min
Mindset: :) Labyrinth meditation, Accountability Coaching Call. Today a PokerDetox alum turned personal trainer came to the accountability call and we're going to be doing a group thing! There will be prop bets, but I don't think I'll participate in that. It just doesn't motivate me. But I did sign up for the personal training! Excited to get meal plans and a workout plan customized for meeeeee!

25min: Bluffcatching flashcards
135min: Accountability Coaching Call
25min: Anki flashcards Facing Flop Bet, Training Video Flop Defense BBvBTN
25min: Training video continued...

Fitness: :) StrongLifts5x5 40lbs
Nutrition: :)
Sleep: 8hrs 29min
Mindset: :/

50min: Play
50min: Play
50min: Play
50min: Play
50min: Play
50min: Play

Now, to relax and head off to a home game at my buddy's house!

It's harder than I thought to force myself to only study one part of the game! When I play I find myself wanting to take notes on other parts of the game tree and then reminding myself NO. April is the month of flop defense. I played $1/$1 at a homegame last night and ended up +$218. We played the Win the Button game, which is a less annoying gambling game than most. Even though I was to the left of the whale, so I had to pay blinds multiple times, it was worth it to be to the left of a whale trying to win the button three times in a row just to get three more of my bucks.

Fitness: :) StrongLifts5x5 40lbs (35lbs OHP), 10min 3.5mph
Sleep: :) 8hrs 47min
Nutrition: :/
Mindset: :/

50min: Play on Twitch QueenOfDiamonds
50min: Play on stream
50min: Play
25min: Anki deck Facing Flop Bet, review notes
25min: Review tagged hands
25min: Finish reviewing hands. Continued yesterday's training video.

I had my first Division 1 training call today! I learned a lot, but I still feel like I've barely scratched the surface of flop defense. This is going to be a deep rabbit hole, and I love it. Waking up every day excited to play poker. Tomorrow is going to be another wonderful grind. My personal trainer sent over my training plan so I'mma hit the gym in the morning.

Fitness: :P Rest day
Nutrition: :/
Sleep: :( 7hrs 26min
Mindset: :)

50min: Play on Twitch QueenOfDiamonds
50min: Play on stream
25min: Play
50min: Play
50min: Pla
25min: Review tagged hand histories
25min: Finished HH review, Anki Flop Defense deck, continued training video.

Welp, went through a downswing, so I'm reaching out to my team for some extra support with what to do next.

Fitness: :) First day following personal trainer's plan!
Sleep: :) 8hrs 43min
Nutrition: :)
Mindset: :( Send cute animal pics.

50min: Play
50min: Play
50min: Play
50min: Play
25min: Play
50min: Play
50min: Play
25min: Reviewed tagged hands.
25min: Finished hand review, finished training vid.

So, I felt reassured by my team's reaction to my downswing. My coach suggested I drop down to 50NL to regain confidence. The money guy offered me more money, but I declined for now. And, of course, my teammates shared animal pictures that cheered me up. Here are some thoughts I wrote on Twitter today: Poker teaches humility. You can always be outsmarted by someone else. You have to accept your mistakes & learn from them. Poker is a game of curiosity. You wonder what cards your opponents have, and what they think you have. You test hypotheses without fear of being wrong. This game is one of fate and freedom. You cannot control the cards, but you can control your reactions. Do not blame or praise, but accept and act. Do not regret or complain, but take responsibility to learn. You signed up for these ups and downs.

Fitness: :) Personal trainer day 2!
Sleep: :) 8hrs 6min
Nutrition: :/
Mindset: :)

50min: Play
50min: Play
50min: Play
50min: Play
25min: Anki Flop Defense Deck, Flop Defense Slides
25min: Reviewed tagged hands.
25min: Training Video: 3BP IP PFC facing flop cbet

Yesterday 150min Play

How wild is it that all these feelings can get projected into a deck of cards? I cannot think clearly while fighting for unreasonable levels of control.

Fitness: :) Finished Week 1 with personal trainer.
Sleep: :/ 7hrs 26min
Nutrition: :/
Mindset: :/

110min: Study Accountability Call
50min: Play
50min: Play
50min: Play
50min: Play
50min: Play
25min: Anki Deck flop defense, Hand History Review
25min: Posted hands for review, continued training video.

Fitness: :/ Rest day.
Sleep: :)
Nutrition: :)
Mindset: :/
Played.
Played 6 hours today. Nice, relaxing Saturday.
25min: Anki deck flop defense, Anki protocols, hand history review
25min: Reviewed tagged flop defense hands

Enjoyed an article by Tommy Angelo on How to Meditate While You Play Poker. There's an MP3 there that is going to be a part of my warm-up along with Elliot Roe. I took 42 mindful breaths today.

Fitness: :/
Sleep: :)
Nutrition: :/
Mindset: :)
Played 4.7 hours.
25min: Studied Anki Flop Defense, hand history review for protocols, Anki for protocols.
25min: Posted flop defense hands to Discord, tagged hands for tomorrow's training call.

Fitness: :/
Sleep: :)
Nutrition: :)
Mindset: :)
Played 3 hours
25min: Studied hand histories for protocols, Anki drill on protocols
25min: Posted flop defense hands to Discord, Anki drill on flop defense, training vid.

Fitness: :)
Sleep: :(
Nutrition: :)
Mindset: :)
Played 4.3 hours
25min: Studied hand histories for protocols, Anki drill on protocols
25min: Posted flop defense hands to Discord, Anki drill on flop defense, training vid.

Yesterday my high score of mindful breaths was 62. My coach helped me narrow down my study focus to flop defense 3BP IP PFC.

Fitness: :)
Sleep: :)
Nutrition: :)
Mindset: :)
Played 4.5 hours.
25min: Studied hand histories for protocols, Anki drill on protocols
25min: Posted flop defense hands to Discord, training vid.

Fitness: :)
Sleep: :)
Nutrition: :)
Mindset: :)
Played 2.4hrs
25min: Studied hand histories for protocols, Anki drill on protocols
25min: Posted flop defense hands to Discord, Anki flop defense, GTOw 3BP IP PFC

Fitness: :(
Sleep: :)
Nutrition: :)
Mindset: :)
Played 3.4hrs
25min: Studied hand histories for protocols, Anki drill on protocols
25min: Studied feedback to hands, Anki flop defense, GTOw 3BP IP PFC