Congrats on the kid. I doubt you'll have much free time with a newborn after your parental leave ends. Especially once normal activity in the outside world picks up again.
What can we expect from this journal? What will the updates be about?

The gym is quite small and I have some lower back issues, so deadlifting is not a good option for me.

Aw. It's my favourite compound lift.

Congrats! It's so cool that you get to spend all this time with your new baby. I play MTTs and I've been at it for about a year now. I can't offer much advice but I will definitely say BRM is crucial. It helps you stay sane when things aren't going quite right. Also, come up with a schedule for your play time and study time. It helps a lot to have this organized.

Oh, and believe it or not, Metallica's Enter Sandman will put any child to sleep almost instantly. I stumbled onto this by accident when my son was a newborn. Obviously don't play it loud. And if you can find the instrumental version (no lyrics) that's best. It has a classical sound almost like a lullaby. My son slept 8 hours every night from the time he was like 1 month old. Never had a problem getting enough sleep.

Hello guys,

finally I can get back to this blog. Being a young dad is/was so much more demanding than I expected and right in this moment he is waking up :)

Things are great! I really love it.

Quick update on the other topics:
Poker: has been more off then on, due to being tired and no time to focus. No real update here. I tried Natural 8 but the software kept crashing and I cashed out again. Right now I am back to 888. Will try to get a sample size on their fast tables and then post a graph and some stats. So far games are looking good.

Meditation:
I finally went for the subscription of the waking up course by Sam Harris and I am absolutely loving it so far. The first 5 days are for free and they also offer 1 year for free if you really can't afford it. I have listened to some podcasts with Sam before (JRE for example). Being an agnostic, his approach to meditation is especially appealing. The subcscription for a year is 100 € (or $). I tried my hands on Metta meditation for the first couple of times and that was fascinating :)

Fitness:
Everything is going well, I still manage to hit the gym 3x per week. Will keep the same routine for a total of 12 weeks, then one week off and then probably back to 4x per week (upper lower split).

Thanks for reading and may you be happy :)

Cheers,
Aquila

Hello there,

I am reanimating this blog. :) I guess I underestimated the energy it would take to raise a baby and thought I would still have plenty of time and the energy to play continously. By now he is 9.5 month old and we have found our groove a bit more.

So, what are the current goals and topics this blog will be about?

Poker:
- Play PLO within my bankroll (100 buy-ins, starting with 500$) = PLO5 on GG Poker
- Play only when he is asleep (so, that's after dinner) using a Pomodoro Timer
- Read/Study Jnandez PLO-Book & the one from Matthias Plum (not sure that's his name, but this book might be more applicable to my games)
- Be patient. Work on a pre session flashcard, which is supposed to set me in the right mindset and prevent me from typical mistakes (playing too many hands, playing non-nutted hands multiway, not barreling enough, not taking my time with decisions...)

Health/Fitness:
Gym is still closed, so I am stuck with my 2 dumbbells (2x max. 15 kg)
- Workout 3x a week, full body workout
- Daily stretching. 13x 1 Minute.
- No alcohol for 30 days. I was drinking too constantly, not a lot but just regular. Also I know it affects my sleep quality, which does suck due to the fact that I keep watch on the little one via a camera. So, I don't sleep as deep as I used to anyhow. Currently I am at 8/30.
- No coffee once I ran out of it. Still a little more than 1 kg to go. When I wake up I instantly prepare coffee and I drink a lot. I want to do a 30 day only water challenge. See how that affects my skin, weight and so on. So, step 1 is the alcohol, then the coffee and then I can go for the water only.
- Try Hello Fresh. We will get our first package next tuesday. We have used Marley Spoon before, which is basically the same. Then we quit and quickly started cooking too much and always the same. With the little one around we now have to make some adjustments/ consider to prep food that he can try/eat as well. I will post some pictures of the meals, if they look halfway decent ^^
- Measury weight once a week. I don't have any weight goals, but I want to keep a watch on it. My main goal is too stay fit and healthy and keep a good diet.
- A longterm goal regarding fitness is doing an Ironman. I am talking about 3-4 years here. My first step towards this goal is to swim 4 kmm but without a pool this obviously is impossible right now. I will not start out with running, because I have arthrosis in my right ankle joint. So, we will see if this can become a reality. Running is associated with pain, even though I went through surgery, but they only took out some tiny bone parts, that were floating around in my ankle joint. But swimming is fine and I will take my time with this project.

Money:
- Save money for a house/ moving to Sweden.
- Continue investing in ETF's (monthly saving plane) and something like a life policy.

Enough text for now. I will write a short session review each evening when I played. I was planning on not checking the cashier, but with the new german regulations that's not working. You get an overview each time you open the app...

Thanks for reading. Also, does anyone know of an article about the insurance on GG-Poker? When should I use it?

Cheers,
Aquila

ok,
session number 2 on GG:
3 sessions a 25 Minutes 4 tabling PLO5. Tired by the end of the third, made a loose call in one of free bb pots. What are they called again? :)
Called it off 200bb deep w QJ98ds, felt like gambling, which ain't the goal ^^

Can anyone recommend playlists on Spotify for background music?

Is it possible to export handhistories from GG and import them to HM3 or PT4?

Cheers and good night...

Nr. 3:
too tired, played 2 sessions, but felt tired all the way. First one was still ok, but shouldnt have went for the second one.

Hello,

I see that I have to change my approach to the Game. I was talking to a friend of mine today and he is a professional mental coach. His advice was the same that my wife has been giving me for quite some time...I should listen to her more ;)

So: Poker is a hobby. To me it's a GAME with levels. It's also a tool for me, to work on consistency and discipline.

Poker is NOT about making money for me. It is not about becoming something like a sport pro, something I have aspired to become when I was young and a dream that I have been chasing in some ways. I also don't have the time to become a professional poker player. I have a job, a family, sport, friends and other commitments that will not allow me to put in tremendous amount of time for this, which would be required to become a professional.

This means "business before pleasure".

I am also thinking about using a fantasy analogy to Poker, I like to read fantasy books and was a big Diablo2 players when I was younger :) and yes I am looking forward to D4...D3 sucks...
So, right now I am on level 2 (B), which is PLO5. I have to master opponents like rake, opponents and my lack of patience/discipline. But in level 2 there are also a lot of easy monsters to slay when you start with a superior weapon. Let's see if this analogy will be helpful for me :)
So my first task is to stick to a simple routine for the next 10 days.
Play 1 sessions of 25 Minutes of PLO5 Rush once the little one is asleep. No music, no focus on the monetary outcome and just go play a solid style and work on the basics.

Cheers,
Aquila

1/10 finished.
Level 2 hero on the move...
Will think about a reward once I am close to finishing.

Can someone tell me how to insert GIFs here? ^^

Thanks for reading.
Cheers,
Aquila

RoleTide you are probably right from a strategic (rake) point of view, but for me this is about setting out to do a task and then execute it. As simple as it might be, but gotta start with the consistency somewhere. I am very prone to switching plans or cashing out and then reloading and all this idiocy. I need to be able to take more hits without doing stupid stuff, like chasing losses or cashing out = Hero needs more Hitpoints and a better armor :)

2/10 finished. Lost some, ran with quads into straight flush and with AA vs top set vs shortstack. Doesn't matter at all. If I want to play PLO, then that's nothing unusual at all. Gotta accept the role of the dice and roll with it...

3/10 finished. Captain Teemo Reporting for Duty ^^

4/10 done. Early today

anyone here playing NL10 on GG? Thoughts about the pool? Compared to Stars?

Can I import GG Handhistories to Pt4?

5/10 done.
Actually fucked up a bit yesterday and played some more and obvioulsy ran like Jesus...NOT :)
Will continue still, try to be kind to myself. Now off to a nice glass of red wine...
Also, playing 4 reg tables, in my age the slower pace is preferable, also more fishy plays ^^

6/10 done.
Ran good in allin with FD vs Top Set. Bad call on my end, thought my equity would be better. Playing regular tables is a lot more relaxing.
Any ideas what do to after the 10th session? There should be a small increase. Either I will add some playtime = extend to 30minutes or add some study time, but don't think I can find that much time yet.
Real life issues... I was looking into wine fridges. Anyone here can recommend a good 2 zone one? :)

7/10 done. Was tired, but okay. Weather is good and first icecream of the year :)

8/10 done. Got smacked on the tables ^^ probably played bad too. Just tired and exhausted.

9/10 played some earlier, not 25 minutes or so, but I realize that playing in the evening when I am always tired and exhausted ain't the best idea...I will most likely take a break and just study for a bit (when I have time) and then get back to the tables when our son is in kindergarden. Right now I am between D and E in terms of quality of play. Frustrating and not worth it, since the money isn't important anyhow.
Ordered some bottles of nice white wine. We have 20°C already and so I can start the white wine season already by the end of February :) Life's a bitch ^^

10/10 short one. Will take a break now. Will maybe write again in the future. We will see.
Good luck and stay healthy ^^

Hello there,

quick update. Found a reasonable routine since our boy is at the kindergarden for ~ 6 hours between monday and friday. I did put in some hands this week and also worked on my preflop game. Next week things will change again, I am going back to work :)(:
So, no time to play in the mornings. I will need to play in the evening. Goal for the coming weeks is to just work on preflop with flash cards and play solid.
My meditation has slipt quite a bit. I would like to do it first thing in the morning, but when I sit down I am constantly wondering if he is awake or not. The gym is closed again ;(
Life is good overall.
Hope you are all doing fine.
Any book recommendations?