This video is targeting a player like me precisely. I'm 41 and have been playing on and off for 10 years. Now, there are a lot of factors in life that were going on around me that were completely outside of my control and in retrospect, made progressing at this game long term nigh impossible. I just had absolute chaos in my world. And then, I had an unspeakably bad past year. Lost people, pets, a place to live, etc. Removing that entirely: I've made a ton of mistakes in poker. Fear of success, fear of failure, fear of losing money, a terrible pattern of "quitting" for periods of time after bad sessions. My emotional foundation was nonexistent. Especially over the past year, out of necessity, I've slowly chipped away at everything in my life from the ground up instead of trying to take on change in one huge bite, as you discuss in the video. When you add up all of the little changes over time, you do see how big of an accomplishment it is and start noticing that you've developed actual good habits. They're just a natural part of your behavior now. Regardless of if I do good or bad at the tables, the stability and progress in my own life outside of poker can remain static if I just stay disciplined.

I'm about to start putting in a lot of volume over the holidays. I've been studying a lot (especially here on RIO) and learning how to use solvers on a more advanced level. I'll continue to study alongside my play and be focused on my own (and other's) hand histories. I may even pick up the Elite to GTOWizard so I can upload hands for analysis. That's like...invaluable to me.

Thank you again for these videos and keep them coming, please!

Chris Pimmer To answer your question: Past experience. I had, many times, took my ambition and motivation and exhausted it on total changes seemingly overnight. Obviously, these attempts failed and left me even more tired and frustrated than before. This time, considering all that I'm going through, I really had to spend the time it takes to change things brick by brick. I knew I had no more room for error and that it was time to do life right...even in the face of horrible occurrences. They happen.

I stopped drinking, too. It's like 10 months now. In the past, that's how I'd deal with the worst of my emotions. I just couldn't make the U turn you mention. No matter how hard I tried. In this case, at this age, I had no choice but to face things sober, raw, and directly. And I'm building the foundation well this time so that whatever future structure I place on top, holds firm and keeps me well balanced.

Chris Pimmer I really do appreciate your words. I'm not married, I have no kids, no debt...nothing like that. I have my old man in the nursing home and then my mother, thankfully. Everyone else is either estranged or long gone at this point. So, you're right: I go from rock bottom to "decent or ok" but honestly - it's not bad today. I have my freedom to do what I want, a few bucks in my pocket, a good hobby here, and probably quite a bit of time left on my hands in life. Who knows...maybe I'll find a way to get great at this or something else.

Over the years, I've often been encouraged to write a book about some of my experiences. It might just be time for that, too. But I really want to work on my poker game and theoretical understanding of such at the moment.

Hey Chris thank you great video

Yeah, trying to go from 0-100 so hard. Especially when it’s such a drastic change in your lifestyle. I genuinely like encouraging people that don’t really workout but want to get into going to the gym, start out gradual and increase. Don’t just go like 6 days a week do 30 sets every single workout you’ll just get burnt out lol. Push yourself but down burn yourself out.

Man the more I think about fear the more scared I get lmao, it’s a combination of oh fearing to lose, fearing that I’m never going to win after taking some loses, fear that I’m not a good enough poker player.

I think at some point all players have had maybe thoughts like these when in reality they have no affect on the cards or runouts that hit the table. What it can affect is how we play.

I saw a clip this morning, 40 year old lebron James putting up 40 points last night. Yes he’s very skilled and talented. But how many other 40 year olds are able to do what he’s doing for as long as he’s done it for? Just like in poker takes, consistency, determination, hard work and the time to show up every day and put in the work away from the court/table.