Doc

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

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 5.3hrs
25min: Studied hand histories for protocols, Anki drill on protocols
25min: Posted flop defense hands to Discord, finally bit the bullet and signed up for GTO Wizard.

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 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.

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.

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: :/ 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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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!

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...

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.

Thanks, bro! I learned things!

Hi Ben! Thanks for this incredible gift of a thread. I've been taking notes. Here's another time management question. I am currently a beginner, I've been playing microstakes online a year. I enjoy studying and I study a lot. Assume that I have a functional level of obsession. Like, I'm doing the essential human-ing, but I'm still the type to spend a significant percentage of my waking hours on poker while eating the rainbow cookies. How do I spend my poker obsession time as a relative beginner? I'm assuming I'm not ready for solvers and I'm bloody terrible at learning from videos. Right now I spend most of my time reviewing hands and talking them over with a buddy while taking notes, reviewing my notes, and of course playing as much as I possibly can. How should I be budgeting my time and on what?

I know this is old, but I just found it and I'd love to be in a Spins study group.

I am an author of over a dozen published books. Poker is definitely harder!

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.

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 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.

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.

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 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!