Orca206

Hey RIO,

I have decided to stop my blog here for the foreseeable future. I truly appreciate everyone who has been supportive and who has followed along all this time. Unfortunately, because I already keep a far more extensive blog on Discord, the duplication of effort to also post here just doesn't make any sense in terms of using my time wisely.

Thanks again to all who followed along and were supportive!

Best,
Orca

11/10-11/16 Weekly Review:

Poker Results:
Total: -283bb, 6917 hands
BB/100: -4.09
All-In Adj BB/100: +0.50

Poker Workload:
Playing: 29h, 6/7 Days Played
Solver: 7h
Discord: 7h
PT4: 5h
Anki: 3h
CFP Materials: 1h
Group Coaching Call: 1h
Total: 53h, 29 playing, 24 study

Poker Thoughts:
While 53 hours is obviously a decent workload, there are a couple of things that concern me. When I combine the screen time data on my phone with the data from my PC, I spent 5.5 hours on Facebook this week. I normally never use Facebook at all, as in 0 minutes per week for years on end, but I started doing so again recently to better keep in contact with my family after the passing of my father. I would like to keep using it occasionally, but this is an absurd amount to sink into it on a weekly basis. I can't afford to spend 45 minutes per day on it. Something more like 5-10 minutes per day is far more appropriate. I have decided to delete the app off of my phone and restrict use to 15min per day on my PC.

I also spent another additional 3 hours on Discord on my phone. Unlike the time I spend on Discord when I'm using my PC, where I'm often writing longer replies or doing session reviews, on my phone, I can only be checking for notifications. There's nothing else productive I can do. While I absolutely have zero intention of decreasing my participation there, I don't need access to Discord on my phone for any reason that I can think of. I'm going to delete Discord off of my phone, too.

If I'm mathing correctly, and I believe I am, that frees up an additional 8 hours that can go directly towards study. Keeping in mind that my goal for the month was a mandatory minimum of 100 study hours, and I'm currently at ~51 after two weeks, I think something needs to be done to ensure I get closer to my actual target of 125. It seems unlikely to happen this month, but I can reverse trends for next month by starting now.

Mental Game Development:
Meditation: 7/7 Days, ~20-30 minutes per session
Primed Mind: 4/6 Days, ~10-15 minutes per session

Book List:
1) Marcus Aurelius by Donald J. Robertson, finished
2) Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, finished
3) A Guide to the Good Life by William B. Irvine, finished
4) The Stoic Challenge by William B. Irvine, currently reading
5) The Obstacle Is The Way by Ryan Holiday, currently reading (started with my wife separately from Irvine's books)

Mental Game Thoughts:
I was so thoroughly impressed with both the philosophy and character of Marcus Aurelius that I have resolved to become a practicing Stoic myself. As for now, I'm not entirely sure what that will entail. There are a few daily practices that the Stoics seemed to have engaged in including: 1) negative visualization and 2) taking moral inventory. I'm still working my way through a litany of modern takes on the philosophy and many of these books go over the authors' personal implementation in a 21st century context. I'm still looking for ideas on how to build a Stoic training program. I am certain of one thing: I will acquire physical copies of all relevant works by Marcus Aurelius, Seneca, Epictetus, and Musonius Rufus. On top of my daily meditation practice, I will spend at least thirty minutes per day reading these physical texts. I've found that listening to dense philosophy written in somewhat archaic, old language is too difficult to do. Contemporary stuff? Sure, absolutely and I still get a lot from it. Listening to the Meditations, though? I was frustrated by not being able to regularly pause, reread, and reconsider each line. It's just too dense.

Health Management:
Average Bodyweight: 190.3lbs / 86.3kg (-2.8lbs / -1.3kg)
Sleep: 8h36m (+26m)
RHR: 63bpm (+0)
HRV: 16ms (+0)

Fitness:
Workouts: 5/5
Highlights:
I attempted to run the 800m/0.5mi in 3min on Sat, but I fell short by about 11-12 seconds. I could tell I was going to trip and possibly fall off the treadmill if I kept pushing.

Health Thoughts:
On the one hand, to come so close to my 800m goal and yet not be able to finish is a challenge, but, on the other hand, I gave it my absolute best effort. I can't really ask for more. I added running back into my fitness regime on 10/9 after more than 10+ years of focusing solely on strength training (with some mild incline walking as my only form of cardio). I ran 1.5mi at 13:20mi/min pace in that first session. I think I've gotten my mile time down to something just under 7min in the last five weeks. You can't ask for anything more than significant progress. I will still continue to pursue a sub-6min mile as a fun side quest of sorts. I have no real reason that I want to do it other than that I've never done it before. To be faster than I was in high school at 140-150lbs would be neat.

I think I have an outside shot at accomplishing my goal at the end of December when my training program calls for an all-out mile test. More realistically, I think I'll need another 8 week training cycle after the completion of this one in late December before I crack it. Well, no matter. I'll keep going until the job is done.

Overall:
This has been an interesting week. My wife managed to total our car two nights ago by running something over and somehow cracking the transmission. We spent eight hours dealing with it yesterday. We only have one car because I don't go anywhere to do anything so it didn't seem necessary to have two. I play Poker and walk to the gym. She, though, needs the car to get into Boston each day for work. She's been incredibly stressed out by the whole ordeal and feels an immense amount of guilt. I've been able to remain calm and supportive throughout which I am encouraged by. I look at the situation as an opportunity to respond well to difficulty. I think that's a useful frame and being able to set that frame is all the more reason to continue practicing Stoicism and meditation.

I mentioned last week that I wanted to change my schedule a bit to optimize my playing hours. I think I've pretty conclusively discovered that the window from about 12am to 6am is better than any of the hours from 9pm-12am or so. However, my sleep is significantly worse when I go to bed after the sun comes up. We start getting the first hints of sunlight around 6am and the sun rise happens at 6:30am. I also start getting quite tired around 5am or so. Putting all of this together, I settled on a window of roughly 11:45pm to 4:45am as a playing window. This gives me 1h15m to write my post-session journal entry, walk my dogs, do nightly chores/hygiene stuff, and get to bed before 6am. My room is completely blacked out, but I still think avoiding any sunlight before bed does a world of good (both psychologically and physiologically).

In short, I've settled on playing six days per week, roughly five hours per session, and the playing window is ~12am to ~5am.

Next week, the goal is to get my total study hours to at least 30 and spend closer to 60 hours on poker for the week, total. Given my current priorities and availability, I think that's fairly realistic without stretching into unsustainability.

Good luck at the tables everyone!
~Orca

I've been at peace with my relationship with my father for many years now. Fortunately, I had long since removed any kind of animosity towards him well before this incident. He passed away peacefully in his sleep yesterday. I have no regrets and certainly no bitterness.

How to fundamentally change our paradigm is a difficult question to consider let alone answer in any kind of a useful way, but I will try to share my thinking on the subject. I think the first step is to increase awareness. We cannot begin to fix problems that we do not realize exist. With poker specifically, a greater theoretical understanding of variance, perhaps combined with low-level mathematical education in the basics of statistics, can go a long ways towards dissolving an irrational and emotional attachment to short-term results and thinking. In other areas of life, in one way or another, we will need to fully convince ourselves that a current behavior pattern is based on irrational thinking and, ultimately, not a useful way to act.

However, this increase in self-awareness is often only a first step because, as we all know, understanding something on an intellectual level and then being able to respond appropriately in a state of heightened emotion are two entirely separate things. To my reckoning, when it comes to the latter, there is absolutely no substitute for sheer experience and exposure. While modern science has certainly elucidated the value of certain tools like meditation or any of the tools employed by cognitive behavioral therapists (of which Stoic philosophy is the basis according to the founder, Aaron Beck), in the end, you have to be repeatedly placed in situations which challenge your current skill level. The more often you're able to respond skillfully to emotional challenges, the greater your skill in doing so becomes. In essence, reacting poorly to variance and then correcting such a reaction as swiftly as possible is, I think, the long-term route to true change. Thankfully, poker provides ample opportunities to deal with difficult emotional reactions in a skillful way.

In short, we begin with education and desire. We follow through with reconditioning as often and as well as we are capable of. In time, we should see progress in our ability to respond well to a given stimuli. In other words, first, we must change our thinking and then, second, we change our habitual reactions one instance at a time.

I'm a little unclear on what you mean by focusing only on 2-3 things. I assume you're talking about books? Believe it or not, I do attempt to focus on singular topics with my reading selections. Last month, the focus was on learning: best practices, the current scientific consensus, and how I can apply that information to create a more effective study routine for poker. This month, my focus is entirely on Stoicism. Dealing with anger well is a central theme in Stoic philosophy. Considering most of my "reading" is done via Audiobook, application can often times be a bit tricky, but I do think attempting to improve my skill in dealing with anger is still very much in alignment with pursuing a greater understanding of Stoicism.

As for whether or not I feel pressure to succeed in Poker, I suppose that depends on the level of perspective that we're operating on. From the widest perspective possible, I don't feel pressure to do anything -- not even to keep living. After all, I don't have full control over anything... even my own life. However, as long as I am going to keep living, pursuing excellence and the maintenance of my responsibilities are definitely primary concerns. I play Poker full time. With my current expenditure of both time and effort, anything less than financial success in this game is not justifiable. I could be working any kind of a normal job to help pay the bills now -- not later. So, yes, in a sense, success is absolutely the expectation in the long-run (and not too long, either).

However, if that were to become impossible for some reason, I would change my approach and try something else. I expect to succeed in Poker. If I do not, I would expect to succeed in a subsequent pursuit. As long as I live, there will be an opportunity somewhere to do something. If Poker doesn't turn out to be the correct opportunity for me, so be it. I'll try again with something else.

11/3-11/9 Weekly Review:

Poker Results:
8678 hands, +70bb

Poker Workload:
Playing: 28.5 hours, 6/7 Days Played
Solver: 5.5 hours
Fish HH Reviews: 6 hours
Anki: 5 hours
CFP Materials/Videos: 1.5 hours
Group Coaching Call: 1 hour
Discord: 7.5 hours

Total: 45 hours

Poker Thoughts:
Quite a bit less time here than I usually dedicate to studying each week, but that is mainly due to my estranged, 82-year-old father falling and breaking his neck. He left no will and, as one of his eldest children, medical power of attorney fell to me. Ultimately, with the help of my family, I had to tell the doctors that we believe it was best to proceed with a comfort care protocol rather than engaging in a long list of surgeries that weren't likely to accomplish much. He will never walk again, never eat again, never be able to speak again, and never be able to breathe again without being intubated. I know there is quite a bit of moral controversy surrounding allowing death, but I personally wouldn't wish that existence upon my worst enemy. I had to give approval to take him off of life support today. He's not entirely reliant on it so we don't know if he will make it through the rest of today, a few days, or what the case may be. He will be heavily medicated to eliminate pain. Regardless of what happens, I hope his last moments are peaceful. While we do not share the same religious beliefs, I sincerely hope that he is able to meet his God with grace.

Mental Game Development:
Meditation: 7/7 Days, ~20min/day
Primed Mind Pre-Session Primers: 6/6 playing days, ~10-15min each
Audible: 20h7m (total for month as of 11-10, I don't have weekly data for this)

Book List:
1) How to Be a Stoic by Massimo Pigliucci, finished
2) How to Think Like A Roman Emperor by Donald J. Robertson, Finished
3) Marcus Aurelius by Donald J. Robertson, currently reading

Mental Game Thoughts:
The Stoics consider extended displays of anger a character failing. While they believed that a certain degree of natural reaction to a given stimulus is essentially animalistic in nature, and thus unavoidable, acting while afflicted with these passions is something that IS under our control. We cannot eliminate the experience of anger, but we can eliminate anger-driven reactivity. This is absolutely one of the weakest aspects of my character. Reading about Stoicism has greatly inspired me to improve in this regard. Because I am so goal-oriented, I can often be impatient and irritable when loved ones and friends need something from me while I am working (which is almost always and therefore unreasonable). When playing poker, I can get legitimately pissed off in animated and vocal fashion when getting repeatedly unlucky. Both of these types of reactions are things I no longer wish to tolerate as acceptable behaviors. I plan to continue reading everything the Stoics have to say on this matter, and more, to see if they have any prescient guidance on how to improve.

Health Management:
Average Bodyweight: 193.1lbs/87.6kg (-2.9lbs/1.3kg)
Sleep: 8h10m (+41min last week)
RHR: 63bpm (-4bpm)
HRV: 16ms (+2ms last week)
Days Without Caffeine: 3

Fitness:
Workouts: 5/5 complete
Highlights:
1) Ran a sub 9min mile, rested 60 seconds and ran another
2) Ran 6 x 200m at 52sec pace on 60 seconds rest between intervals

Health Management Thoughts:
I was under 190lbs/86.2kg for the first time in more than five years today! Not bad. Getting under 180lbs before the end of November seems completely unrealistic, but I should be able to get there before the new year.

This week, I eliminated caffeine from my routine entirely... yet again. I think this single fact explains the increases in sleep and health metrics to be honest. Now that I've settled into a new circadian rhythm where I stay up all night, it just isn't necessary for me to use caffeine to stay alert or to help maintain the correct hours. I've fully adjusted... for now.

Next week, I have to run an 800m time trial. This is a bit difficult because I'll have to do it on a treadmill. In other words, I kind of have to "guess" what the correct speed will be before the workout. I haven't fully decided yet. On Tuesday, my program calls for 4 x 400m on 2min rest between intervals. I think I'll attempt to do those at a sub 1:45min pace each. If I can do that, I'll probably attempt somewhere in the neighborhood of 3min to 3m15s for the time trial. I'm really looking forward to it. My goal of a sub-6 minute mile isn't seeming so far off anymore.

Overall:
I've mentioned this elsewhere, but my plan for the next week is to move away from a daily schedule and move towards a weekly regiment. What I mean by that is that I'll no longer be playing every single day. I'm going to concentrate most of my playing on the weekends. I'm going to do most of my studying on the week days. My goal is to not shift the total amount of hours dedicated to playing or studying at all. I just want as many of the hours played as possible to be weekend hours at night. I want as many of the study hours as possible to be during the weekdays especially during the day. In the long run, I think this will greatly increase my profitability. I still don't have a great idea on the best division of my time in this regard, but I'm leaning towards just playing marathon weekend sessions and letting experience be my guide. I think after a few weeks of doing it, I'll have a better idea of what works and what doesn't.

Things I'm considering:
1) Optimal Session Length? I usually play 4-5 hours. Can I handle 7-8 without a drop in decision quality?
2) Breaks? Multiple Sessions?
3) Fatigue. Will I be too tired to play A-B game at 7am on a Saturday?

I think I need real world data to answer this stuff. I've talked to some players and everyone seems to be very different and have a personalized approach to these questions. I don't see anyway around basic trial and error here.

As always my friends...

Good luck at the tables!
~Orca

Sam Forde thank you for the suggestion!

I know I have been a little less active here as of late, but that is because Nacho's team has a thriving Discord and I'm spending a lot of time there. This place is relatively dead, as we all know, but I am still deeply grateful to those who have followed along so far. I'm still going to post larger scope weekly/monthly reviews as well as any big life changes that occur.

Here's my review of October and my goals for November:

One quick note: I began playing on Oct 13th so I only have just over half of a month of data here.

Poker Playing:
Hours Played: 93 hours
Days Played: 18/19 (avg 5.2h per session)
Hands: 21,350
BB/100: +2.46
Adj BB/100: +0.06
Net $ Won (post RB): $292.43

I installed rescue time on Oct 7th so I don't have the full month of data here, either.

Poker Studying:
Anki: ~42h, 1.8hr/day
Playbook Study: ~36h, ~1.5hr/day
Solver: ~25h, ~1hr/day
PT4: ~10h, ~30m/day
Discord: ~20hr, ~1h/day
Total: 133h, ~5.8hr/day

Mental Game Development:
Audiobooks: ~65h, ~2.1hr/day
Meditation: ~8h, ~15m/day

Finished Book List:
1) Learn Like A Pro by Barbara Oakley
2) Make It Stick by Roediger et al
3) Ultralearning by Scott Young
4) Get Better at Anything by Scott Young
5) Hidden Potential by Adam Grant
6) How We Learn by Stanislas Dehaene
7) SuperBetter by Jane McGonigal

Health Management:
10/1 Bodyweight: 215.7lbs / 97.8kg
10/31 Bodyweight: 193.6lbs / 87.8kg
Average Sleep: 7h38m (+14m from Sep)
Average RHR: 67bpm (-1bpm from Sep)
Average HRV: 13ms (-3ms from Sep -- this is bad, you want a higher number here)

Goals for November:

Poker
Process Goals
Mandatory Minimum / Realistic Target / Stretch Goal
Hours Played: 100 / 125 / 150
Hours Studying: 100 / 125 / 150

Desired Outcomes
1) Catch-up on my Anki debt and reduce Anki time to 15-30m per day so I have more time for solver work especially in the trainer doing drills (I did zero drilling in Oct)
2) Move back up to 100NL before the end of the month (I don't really have control of this, but it is still the goal)

Mental Game:
Process Goals
Mandatory Minimum / Realistic Target / Stretch Goal
Audiobook Hours: 30 / 45 / 60
Meditation Hours: 6 / 9 / 12
Meditation Sessions: 30/30 with zero missed sessions

Desired Outcomes
1) Finish 4-8 books about Stoicisim, specifically. I am dedicating the entire month to learning more Stoicism. I have done extensive reading into Eastern philosophy -- particularly Buddhism. However, I've also read the Book of Five Rings, Hagakure, and Sun Tzu. I know comparatively jackshit about Stoicism which, to my understanding, is the closest thing we have to Western version of a similar-ish philosophy. If anyone has any book suggestions on the subject of stoicism please, let me know!

Health Management:
Process Goals
1) No more than two off-plan meals per week
2) 5 days or less of going to bed 30m-60m later than scheduled
3) Zero days of going to bed more than 1 hour later than scheduled
4) Miss zero training sessions in the gym. I'm currently running a mile-time improvement program from reddit: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1haA9JgVkEwSfBHcah559F5lAtVtFVBPd/edit?gid=828321695#gid=828321695

Desired Outcomes
1) Weight Loss Goals: minimum 7.5lbs, target: 10lbs, stretch: 179.9lbs or lower
2) Run 800m Time Trial in 3m or less

I'll revisit all of this in December and see how I did.

Results of Shot Take Attempt #1 at 100NL on Ignition:

For the first time in my short 7-month poker playing "career", I'm going to have to move back down in stakes. After this session, I've lost around 11 buy-ins at 100NL in total. I'm down to 16 buy-ins for 100NL and 32 for 50NL. I think, per the team guidelines, after -10 buy-in shot, you move back down. So... down I go.

I wish I could say that the losing hasn't been affecting my play, but it clearly did in this session. I went down 5 buy-ins very quickly and never fully recovered mentally. I spent the majority of the session with 30-40% of my brain power focused on losing, having to move down, and general emotional negativity.

While I'm disappointed, I'm not at all discouraged. The players at 100NL really weren't any different in quality compared to 50NL. The ratio of fish to regs was significantly worse, sure, but there were still plentiful fish. These are easily beatable games. However, the biggest problem with this shot, was that I actually got crushed by fish. I lost at 10bb/100 all-in adjusted and most of that was to Fish. I won nearly 20bb/100 all-in adjusted at 50NL... and most of that was from Fish. I don't think it's possible for one stake to be that much harder than the other.

One of the reasons I joined Nacho's was to improve my play vs. Fish. Before joining, I was significantly better, relatively speaking, vs. Regs than vs. Fish. All of my study time was spent in the solver trainer and 0% was spent on nodelocking, exploits, MDA, etc. I think I've improved a lot in terms of being able to exploit Fish, but there's obviously a long ways to go. I'm going to continue to focus most of my study efforts on vs. Fish strategy.

While there was certainly some part of my brain that was harboring fantasies of a straight shot right to 500NL+, that obviously isn't reality. The real road to success is often long and winding. I'm pretty fucking annoyed, because I absolutely hate losing, and I absolutely detest performing and existing at a level below my best, but I am, ultimately, completely unphased. I am very grateful to poker for providing me with these opportunities to become emotionally stronger and more resilient. Such personality upgrades are even more valuable to me than money. When faced with these types of abject failures, I've come to know the truth about myself: nothing short of death is going to make me quit before I reach my goals.

Lifetime 5NL Results on ACR:

Across 110 days of playing and 300k+ hands, I lost just about 100 buy-ins at 5NL before I finally cracked the code there. After I did, it was less than 3 months until I was shot-taking 100NL. This time, breaking through won't take nearly as long because I have the support and resources of the team at Nacho's. I will be at 500NL+ within twelve months. I have no doubt at that. I have no doubts about myself. This is something very doable. I just need to continue to get better, which is what I work on every single day of my life.

Tomorrow, there will be no moping, no whining, no complaining, and no bemoaning luck/variance. We get straight back to another 10+ hour day of poker. We get straight back to kicking Fish ass and getting back to 100NL as soon as possible. See you tomorrow, folks!

Good luck at the tables everyone!
Orca

Nope! I'm going to post less frequently just because of the low activity here, but I will still give major updates and post my graphs at least once per month.

Day 46 in Nacho's CFP: Review of 10/20/24

Session Results: +486bb, 1143 hands, 4h36m

I have won ~17 buy-ins at 50NL in the last 8 sessions. I now have 24 buy-ins for 100NL. I am winning at roughly ~18bb/100 all-in adjusted so far in 7.5k hands at 50NL.

I am going to talk to the coaches about moving up to 100NL for tomorrow night's session.

Good luck at the tables everyone!
~Orca

Day 45 in Nacho's CFP: Review of 10/19/24

Session Results: +426bb, 1257 hands, 5h21m

Obviously, this is my biggest winning day thus far at 50NL. However, if I don't write about this hand, I'm just not going to be able to sleep, 😂 .

IDK if the .gif will work so I'll post the hand details, too:

This punt is so bewildering. I SNAP jammed here. Didn't even think about it. WTF? This is a super passive fish. Aggression factor below 2 on every street. WWSF of 43. WTSD 39. I didn't know any of this because it isn't on my HUD, but I just couldn't have played a hand worse than this and it is going to bother me for a good long while. Once they call the raise, AND the turn follow through, they are never folding any flush draw even with two straight flushes on the board. I mean, come on. Even when they donk the flop, this is MW and they're stronger than usual. Raising is kind of insane. This whole hand is a disaster and single-handedly cost me 2 buy-ins. From my in-game perception, I played so well throughout the rest of this session only to do this. I guess it's good that I'm not afraid to bet rivers??? lol. I'll never do anything like this again. Makes zero sense if you understand even the slightest bit about fish psychology.

Anyway, I had some relevations about my study approach today after learning about the concept of deliberate play. I'll have to get into that tomorrow. I played longer than I was supposed to. I am up later than I am supposed to be. I don't usually break my schedule for anything so gotta get to bed ASAP.

Good luck at the tables everyone!
~Orca

Day 44 in Nacho's CFP: Review of 10/18/24

Session Results: +7bb, 1067 hands, 4h47m

Well, hey, at least I didn't lose? 🤣

As per usual, I gave away a good 150bb for absolutely no good reason with unnecessary hero calls either in MW pots or against Fish. I don't know why I find it so hard to deprogram that habit, but I am making progress every session. Both of the calls I mentioned were very early in the session and I didn't make any more for the duration. Now, I just have to do that from the beginning of each session and we're golden.

Schedule Change

I have decided to cut my gym schedule back to four days a week so that I can have a few days per week where I get extra study time. I'll do this at least until I complete catch up on Anki. There are some things in the CFP materials that I'd like to implement, but, as is, it doesn't make sense when I'm so behind on current materials. A few days per week where I get ~4 hours of non-review, study time will do the trick nicely.

Not too much more to say about this one.

Good luck at the tables everyone!
~Orca

Day 43 in Nacho's CFP: Review of 10/17/24

Highlights:
+265bb, 1163 hands, 4h41m

I feel like I'm 1-2 silly errors per session away from beating the Ignition 50NL pool for like 20bb/100. I give away 1-2 stacks per session due to unforced errors vs. Fish and/or not understanding multiway pot thresholds well enough.

I understand that there are some great videos which expand upon the basic vs. Fish strategy we are taught in the Nacho's CFP video database. They're on my to-do list. Unfortunately, I have about 1400+ cards due on Anki and adding new material seems crazy right now. On that note, I really need to find a way to cut down on my session reviews which have, once again, grown into 3 hour marathons and I really don't know why. Maybe I should only review bigger pots? I don't like that idea, but maybe it is for the best because, right now, on average, out of the 4.5-5 hours per day I spend studying, only 1 hour is left for new material and drilling. That ratio really sucks. I'm spending a little more time at the gym and with my wife lately and that has taken an hour out of my poker studies. Of course, I can always cut my gym sessions back down to ~30 minutes instead of the ~60 minutes I'm currently spending, too.

Regardless, keeping my session reviews a maximum of 2-2.5 hours is something I need to figure out, ASAP.

Good luck at the tables everyone!
~Orca

Day 42 in Nacho's CFP: Review of 10/16/24

Highlights:
1) +355bb, 1085 hands, 4h35m

Four tables was no problem, obviously. One immediate take away from this session as a note-to-self: be careful when Fish see you bluff in a big spot if you're thinking about running another bluff on the very next hand. They seem to just call anything if they've seen you bluff once in the last few minutes, lol. I've heard many experienced players say that this is a real thing: fish pay a lot of attention to game flow, table dynamics, table image, etc. I feel like I gave away a stack or two at the end because of this very fact.

2) Down to 202.5lbs/91.9kg
3) Ran Sub 12min mile pace for 20 minutes straight
Stop the press. The next Roger Bannister is here in the making, loool. I'm getting better, though! Maybe some day I will actually be "fast" by normal person standards. Watch this space, but don't hold your breath.

That's all for today!

Good luck at the tables everyone,
Izzy

Day 41 in Nacho's CFP: Review of 10/15/24

Highlights:
1) +69bb, 834 hands, 4h36m, Three-Tables

My biggest struggle in poker is calling down too lightly against big river aggression. I gave away 150bb during this session to a fish on a hand I definitely should've ended right on the flop. This particular Fish was VPIPing 100% (yep, lol) and I let them see a cheap river trying to be tricky. They ended up making some shitty trips and overbet shoving for 300%. I called with top pair on a board with multiple missed draws. Lost. Like I said, this type of thing is a recurring struggle for me. Getting river all-in value thresholds nailed down has been the biggest leak in my game since I started. Nothing to do but keep working on it, of course.

Three tables was a breeze today. I actually found my mind wandering a bit towards the end of the session because I was under so little time pressure. I'll be bumping it up to 4 tomorrow and sticking there going forward. I mean, I'd probably play at least a few more, but Ignition doesn't let you, lol.

2) Down to 204lbs/92.5kg
I still think I can get under 200lbs by the end of the month. 4lbs in two weeks is a bit of a big ask, but I'm dieting pretty strictly as my laissez-faire approach had stopped producing further results. I did get down from ~270lbs to about ~215lbs just by not force-feeding. From 215lbs and below, my body will actively fight me to lose any more weight. That's fine. Dieting is something I have 1000% confidence in. I've done more successful diets than I can count. I'm surely much better at dieting than Poker, that's for sure, lol.

Total Progress at 50NL so far:

Good luck at the tables everyone!
~Izzy

Day 40 in Nacho's CFP: Review of 10/14/24

Highlights:
1) +18bb, 611 hands, 4h42m, Two-Tables

The first twenty minutes of this session were an unmitigated disaster. My HUD was malfunctioning. For some reason, it was placing the stat boxes in completely random places. Sometimes they were on top of each other. Sometimes they were next to the wrong player. I have no idea what went wrong, but sitting out and then coming back caused the same issues later in the session. Instead of sitting out like a normal, sane person, I tried to keep playing WHILE fixing my HUD. Why? Zero idea. I lost 2.5 buy-ins in about 50 hands while this was going on and, even off the top of my head, I know I would've played two of those hands differently had I been undistracted. Well, lesson learned I guess.

I also realized early on in the session that I had forgotten how to multi-table. There were a couple of instances where I got deep into an interesting hand and just let myself time out on easy preflop decisions on the other table. I added some sound/graphic alerts with Intuitive Tables to fix that, but I suppose it is a good thing that I realized how rusty I was with two tables instead of four. It is funny to think that not even six weeks ago I was playing 8-10 tables with great ease. The long lay-off didn't do me any favors in that respect.

Once I settled in, everything was fine and two tables was more than manageable, of course. It would've been nice not to punt off 1-2 buy-ins trying to do my own tech support while playing Poker, but, again, lesson learned.

I think three tables should be fine for tomorrow's session, but I may ease into things to ensure no more HUD glitches.

Back again tomorrow for more of the same, eh?

Good luck at the tables everyone!
~Orca

Day 1 of Beating 50NL on Ignition

Back in action here. For the first session, I stuck to one-table to ensure I fully understood and was comfortable with the new software and user interface. For this next session, I will test two-tables. If all goes well, I'll keep increasing one table per session until I'm at the maximum allotment of 4.

Graphs are missing one 15bb win because of a HUD glitch, but oh well.

Total Progress at 50NL so far:

I preferred Make It Stick over Learn Like a Pro, but that may be a quirk of my individual personality. There are many more stories, narrative examples, and, generally, a little more elaboration on the primary concepts. The book is more than twice as long as Learn Like a Pro. In the interest of efficiency, I don’t think it is necessary to read both. They’re both really quite similar. For me, I generally prefer to overlearn a new topic before moving on. I don’t always get much from a single reading unless I invest a lot of effort post-read into going back over the material to create notes, plans, etc.

I haven’t taken Dr, Oakley’s course but I’ve read very good reviews about it when researching the best books on learning.

Personally, I use noise-canceling headphones and I do make use binaural beats embedded in music. However, I listen to the same one continuously… lol. Sometimes for more than 8 hours a day. I don’t think my brain even registers the music anymore.

I've continued journaling on my own, but I've gotten lazy about posting here for a variety of reasons. The main one is that I can't include any of the journaling I do directly about CFP strategy since it wouldn't be kosher to share stuff (obviously).

I've decided to issue myself an ultimatum/challenge/deadline or whatever we want to call it: I will play my first session at 50NL on Bodog this coming Monday, October 14th. I will do this regardless of whether or not I am "done" with my current preparation project. If I am done, great. If I am not done, I will complete the rest of the project during my allotted daily study time going forward. Again though, beginning on the 14th, I will resume playing my usual full length daily sessions regardless of what else I finish or accomplish in the mean time.

Once I get back to regular playing, I will start posting regularly again as I'll at least be able to occasionally post my graphs and talk about those.

Good luck at the tables everyone!

~Orca

Day #29 in Nacho's CFP: 10/3/24 Review

Health Management:

Health Metrics:
Total Sleep: 8h30m
RHR: 63bpm
HRV: 18ms
Weight: 214.2lbs

Health Habits:
Meditation: Complete, 27/27
Gym: Complete, 26/27

Mental Game Development:
Reading: Make it Stick by Peter Brown, Henry Roediger, and Mark McDaniel

Poker Strategy Development:
Anki: 370 cards in 1.77 hours
Studying CFP Strategy: ~2.5 hours

Thoughts on the Day
The plan was to take today off from Poker. I went on a day trip out to Salem, MA with my wife. We went to some museums and participated in some Halloween-y type stuff that was pretty fun. All in all, we got back home around 8:30pm, walked the dogs, and relaxed for an hour or so. Then she fell asleep at maybe 10pm.

I wasn’t going to twiddle my thumbs for five hours until bed and I sure as hell wasn’t going to sit there and watch half a season of something on Netflix. So…I went to the gym which got me fired up because I always listen to motivational videos while I train (with weights/cardio; not poker, lol).

Very quickly after training, I was back at my computer studying Anki cards and building out my strategy integrating the CFP data incentives. Instead of a full off day, I took about two-thirds of the day off. Close enough.

Is there anything I’m currently doing that I could be doing better?

Today, I have an affirmative answer to that question: journaling. I’d like to learn more about journaling. I’ve heard it mentioned as a keystone habit for many, many super successful people from all walks of life. In fact, I often hear it mentioned in almost the same tier of habits as things like meditation and exercise.

In the book I’m currently listening to about learning, one of the primary methods of strengthening retention and improving integration is reflection. What is journaling if not a formal method of reflection?

That prompted me to ask myself if I shouldn’t be journaling about what I’m learning each day. Instead of only asking myself, “is there anything I can be doing better?”, maybe I should also ask myself, “what have I learned today?”. Evidence suggests that the very act of iterating what you’ve learned and putting the concepts into your own words (reflection and elaboration) enhances the rate of learning.

And, of course, that got me thinking more about journaling in general. Surely there are books out there that tackle the subject as a whole. I can’t imagine that there hasn’t been at least SOME research on the best practices involved with journaling. For example, how long should we journal to benefit? Should the writing be free form or should we use a set of prompted questions? Perhaps a mixture of both? Are there any questions, or types of questions, that have proven to be particularly useful to ask and answer on a daily basis either through formal academic work or even just high level anecdotes? Is there anything else I should know about journaling? Anyway, after I spiraled out on these questions for a while, I added learning about journaling to my reading list. I think that’s something I’ll read a book or two about after I’ve finished up my current reading list on learning.

I’ll be back at it with a full day tomorrow.

Good luck at the tables everyone!
~Orca

Day #28 in Nacho's CFP: 10/2/24 Review

Health Management:

Health Metrics:
Total Sleep: 6h22m
RHR: 64bpm
HRV: 18ms
Weight: 214.0lbs
Steps: 10656

Health Habits:
Meditation: Complete, 26/26
Gym: Complete, 25/26

Mental Game Development:
Reading: Make it Stick by Peter Brown, Henry Roediger, and Mark McDaniel

Okay, well, I can already tell that this book is going to be very similar to Learn Like a Pro only far, far better. It isn’t always the best metric, but sometimes one of the most reliable things I look at with books is how many reviews it has. I don’t really care what the reviews say, but the fact that a book inspired more than 1000 people to write a review on Audible usually speaks to content that is, in some way or another, very engaging. When the average review is close to 5-stars, you can then also eliminate the possibility that the book is terrible and truly pissed a bunch of people off.

Poker Strategy Development:
Anki: 878 cards in 3.27 hours
Studying CFP Strategy: ~6-7 hours

Thoughts on the Day:

Let’s begin with the question of the day…

Is there anything that I’m currently doing that I could be doing better?

One of the most annoying things about having a schedule where you go to bed in the middle of the night is that you’re not synced up with the rest of the world. I am an extremely sensitive sleeper. When I’m woken up after sleeping for ~5.5-6 hours, I have zero chance of falling back to sleep even if I’m still quite tired. I’m not sure when this developed, because it is a recent trend, but it developed nonetheless.

There is a point to this and here it is: random things keep waking me up at 9:00-9:30am. That’s happened three times this week. First, my wife didn’t go to work at her normal time because she had a doctor’s appointment at 10:00am. Her 9am alarms (yes, multiple, lol) woke me up. Today, she turned her alarms off in her sleep and woke me up at 9am again. Another time, the landscapers at our apartment complex starting working at 9am and the combination of leaf-blowing AND lawn-mowing right outside the window woke me up. Granted, I already have a 20” box fan running for white noise to drown out the neighbors but things are still waking me up.

So I purchased some foam ear plugs. I’m hoping that can help with the landscapers. It won’t help with the other semi-regular 9am-ish type interruptions though. I have briefly considered pushing my bed-time back another 30-60 minutes so that, should I be awoken at 9am, I’ll have only been asleep for ~5 hours. Usually, when this happens, I can go back to sleep. It’s just right around the ~6 hour mark where I just can’t manage it anymore.

I guess that’s a pretty big stretch in terms of something I can “do better”, but, in actuality, sleep is the single most important recovery variable in any training program. Getting better at poker requires systematic training. Just because it is brain training doesn’t make sleep any less critical. In fact, it is probably more critical when you’re trying to learn new things especially with regards to retention.

Beyond that, I’m just continuing to plug away. I’m making tons and tons of progress every day. Even though I generally don’t outline the specifics, the ease with which I am now recalling specific exploits that only apply to a single line in a single formation is something I’ve very happy with. I’ve made a ton of progress. I’m just going to keep at it.

I’ll be taking most of tomorrow off to visit Salem, MA with my wife. For those familiar, that’s where the infamous witch trials took place. We went last year as well and it was a fun little festive outing. I guess Halloween is right around the corner. Time flies when you’re working ten hours a day… err, “having fun”.

I’m as eager as ever to get back to playing, but I’m also more confident than ever that I’m going to shoot right past my previous limits and go far beyond where I was before. Massive, massive holes in my game have been plugged thanks to the information I’ve gotten in the CFP. My biggest weaknesses, I think, used to be dialing in correct river frequencies for bluffing and bluff-catching. In the CFP, there’s a structured, systematic way of making those decisions that takes away most of the guesswork. My river game isn’t even remotely the same as what it was before.

When you combine that with the fact I’m switching over all of my volume to a much softer site and playing during much softer hours, I really just can’t wait to see what is possible once I’m back on the digital felt.

That’s enough ranting and raving for today.

Good luck at the tables everyone!
~Orca

Day #27 in Nacho's CFP: 10/1/24 Review

Health Management:

Health Metrics:
Total Sleep: 7h29m
RHR: 69bpm
HRV: 14ms
Weight: 215.7lbs
Steps: 8653

Health Habits:
Meditation: Complete, 25/25
Gym: Complete, 24/25

Mental Game Development:
Reading: Learn Like a Pro by Barbara Oakley PhD
Reading: Make it Stick by Peter Brown, Henry Roediger, and Mark McDaniel

I thought Learn Like a Pro was a quality resource. The run-time is about 3.5 hours and the book very much gets to the point. I wouldn’t say it is completely devoid of narrative quality, but, for the most part, there are very concrete recommendations made at each and every step of the way. If you wanted a crash course, or a synopsis, on the current state of neuroscience behind optimal learning, presented in a format that even high school students can comprehend, this would be the exact book you’d be looking for. I might have more to say once I’ve read other books in the genre, but, for now, I can say that I took several practices for the book and implemented them immediately. Personally, I think if you can get even one good idea from a book that you actually use in your life then it was absolutely worth reading. Using that metric, this was much a better book than others that I’ve enjoyed far more.

Poker Strategy Development:
Anki: 783 cards in 2.76 hours
Studying CFP Strategy: ~7 hours

Thoughts on the Day
One of the ideas that occurred to me while reading Learn Like a Pro is that I might be able to make my journaling more effective with a few prompt questions that I consider each day. The example question in the book, in a section about meta-cognition of all things, was the following: is there anything that I am currently doing that I could be doing better? Of course, this question was posed in the context of trying to enhance learning, but it is a damn good question in any context.

In fact, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that all of us interested in self-improvement should probably be asking ourselves this question at least once a day in an informal manner. And then I thought, hell, why not ask it in a more formal manner?
Is there anything that I am currently doing that I could be doing better?

For now, I don’t think I have anything that immediately springs to mind and that’s perfectly okay. After all, I would hope that if something of that nature did immediately spring to mind, I’d begin working on a solution and move towards implementation as soon as possible.

I think the main concern I have right now still has to do with troublesome worrying over whether or not I should be studying as much as I am while not playing at all. I am quite sure most people would recommend against it. In many respects, I wouldn’t even disagree.

On the one hand, I can absolutely understand the argument that most people are going to learn faster when they try to apply new material in real game situations. Game play acts like a crucible and gives you immediate feedback about what you’ve already learned to the point of unconscious competence and what you haven’t. Game play will also provide emotional content that can increase conscious and subconscious motivation to learn. If you lose a big pot or fail to put in a big bluff that likely would’ve gotten through, and then realize you’ve also made a mistake according to the rules of your own system, the brain is far more likely to internalize that kind of material faster.

On the other hand, as long as no one else cares, why should I care if I’ve taken an “extended” break to study a completely new system of play? My contract hasn’t officially started yet so it isn’t as if I’m missing volume targets for hands or hours played. If such stipulations were already in place, I’d be exceeding them, of course. Like I always do. I played nearly 500k hands in my first five months. I am not engaging in any kind of fear-based procrastination.

I just have a strong desire to see the project that I’ve already started through to the end. I’d like to continue to build out a full Anki deck, WITH explanations, for the entire system. That way, as I’m playing over the coming months, I’m also continuously being tested on my understanding of it. This will act as a safety valve against the poker equivalent of “form creep”. In lifting, form creep can occur when you don’t review your technique (or have your coach do so) on a regular basis. You feel as if you already know the movements well enough. In many cases, you’ve been doing them for over a decade. However, even for super experienced competitors, the fundamentals can begin to slip without at least occasional review. By getting the entire system into Anki, I prevent this from ever occurring. I ensure long-term mastery of the fundamentals.

In the end, as long as I’m not in danger of being kicked out of the CFP for not start playing soon enough, I’ll just continue until I’m finished with my Anki project. Once I am finished, I can guarantee beyond all shadow of a doubt that I’ll average more than 100 hours of play per month. I’ve never once failed to reach that bench mark since I started playing. I won’t start having issues once I get back to it, either.

Good luck at the table everyone!
~Orca

Day #26 in Nacho's CFP: 9/30/24 Review

Health Management:

Health Metrics:
Total Sleep: 7h11
RHR: 63bpm
HRV: 18ms
Weight: 213.4lbs (new low for the year!)
Steps: 10392

Health Habits:
Meditation: Complete, 24/24
Gym: Complete, 23/24

Mental Game Development:
Reading: Learn Like a Pro by Barbara Oakley PhD

Poker Strategy Development:
Anki: 526 cards in 1.27 hours
Studying CFP Strategy: ~8 hours

Thoughts on the Day
As for today, there weren’t any massive lightbulb moments, that’s for sure. I don’t mean that in a negative way whatsoever. Today was a great day from a work and productivity perspective. I have implemented all of the changes I discussed in my last post including getting more granular with my schedule now that my bed time is fixed at 3am. I took a thirty-minute break today to just lay down in the dark and do absolutely nothing which was glorious.

I’ve been continuing to go through and add explanations for my Anki decks relating to the CFP strategy. In all the spots where I’ve gone through and added explanations, my recall and general level of command over the material has increased immensely already.

I’m no longer feeling such intense pressure to rush back to playing as soon as possible. While I still wish I would’ve hit upon my current learning strategy three weeks ago, there’s nothing that can be done about it now. Going forward, I’ve figured out the exact learning style that I need to master new material quickly and efficiently. Some part of my brain feels as if I’ve “wasted” three weeks figuring that out, but that is incorrect for at least two reasons: 1) it isn’t as if I’ve done ZERO learning in that time and 2) discovering the learning process I am now using will continue to pay dividends in perpetuity.

Two Types of Memory
As for 1), I am always surprised at how much I’ve subconsciously internalized during my poker study. Generally speaking, if you asked me a question about how to play a certain hand on a certain texture, it would take me much longer to give a much worse answer than if I SAW the board in question. In my current reading, I’m learning that this has to do with differences in procedural (implicit) vs. declarative (explicit) memory.

Before beginning this process with the CFP, my declarative poker knowledge was incredibly weak, comparatively speaking. I couldn’t necessarily explain why many moves were correct, but I could predict how the solver would play something with a fairly high degree of accuracy in the majority of common nodes. This makes total sense if you consider how I’ve trained myself to play poker: I did hundreds of thousands of reps at high speed against the GTOW trainer. I didn’t take a ton of notes or create formal heuristics; my subconscious did all of that on its own.

Now, I’m forcing myself to consciously learn all of this material and a completely different region of my brain is being stressed. This is literally true on the physiological level. Different regions of the brain are, in fact, more responsible than others for the types of memory I am discussing. I think that’s why this has been such a difficult transition for me. With this type of strategy, you can’t just play. That’s what I normally do. I just play. Very intuitively. Very, very instinctively. Based entirely on subconscious wiring developed during trainer work.

This processed exposed a massive weakness I had in the mental representations I use to play poker. I wasn’t thinking enough. In the long run, I’m going to be so much better as a player for having gone through this. I remind myself of that regularly as I slog through hundreds of Anki cards daily, lol.

Learning as a Skill
And as for 2), I’ve decided to try and “read” all the highly rated books on learning that Audible has available. This process has generated a small fascination with learning itself for me. I’ve always known that virtually everything comes down to skill, but, for some reason, I never managed to think of the ability to learn as a skill. I thought the ability to learn was primarily a product of general intelligence times effort. Predictably, as with all things human, training trumps talent if you can only pick one.

I’m going to spend my reading time learning to be a better learner for the next few weeks (or months depending on how many quality audiobooks there are on the subject). I’m going to apply those learning skills to poker and become a better poker player, too.

Man, I just love the process of getting better at something I’m passionate about. I live for it. For me, nothing beats passion and progress.

Good luck at the tables everyone!

~Orca

Day #25 in Nacho's CFP: 9/29/24 Review

Health Metrics:
Total Sleep: 8h52m*
RHR: 66bpm
HRV: 15ms
Weight: 214.2lbs
Steps: 10526

Health Habits:
Meditation: Complete, 23/23
Gym: Complete, 22/23

Mental Game Development:
Reading: The Art of Learning by Josh Waitzkin, Complete
Reading: Learn Like a Pro by Barbara Oakley P

The Art of Learning is truly a fantastic book. There is absolutely irreplaceable quality to all material created and presented by those who have actually achieved elite, world class levels of mastery. I have all the respect in the world for academics, but my personal belief is that you don't truly understand anything that you haven't experienced. There is no amount of research or intellectual calculation that can bring you to an equal experiential understanding of "honey" compared to tasting honey. You may know the biochemical structure down to the level of the protein structures, but you still lack a fundamental understanding that every single person who has actually tasted honey has. You cannot learn the true nature of expertise from anyone who isn't a true expert themselves. At least, I think this to be true when we are talking about someone trying to make the leap from the 95-99th percentile of performance to the rarified air occupied by those in the 0.1% and beyond.

And that's exactly what this book is: a how-to manual on how to go from good to great or great to elite. I will need to revisit this text in the future when I'm more prepared to understand and apply the material. In poker terms, I'm just too much of a novice to fully extract maximum value. I found myself relating to many of the concepts more deeply in relation to weightlifting. That is how I know exactly how good this material is. I'd highly recommend this book. Even if you, too, are not at the point where you need material on making the jump from good to great, the book is enlightening and entertaining in its own right. Josh is fascinating guy who reached world class levels in both physical and mental disciplines. His perspective is unique and laden with value. I really think most people interested in self-development would enjoy this read.

Poker Strategy Development:
Anki: 176 cards in 45 minutes
Studying CFP Strategy: ~9 hours

Thoughts on the Day

I had several massive lightbulb moments today. In fact, I have enough for a cute little list:

1) Extended Journaling is extremely valuable for me and short-form journaling is little more an inefficient way to track metrics

I've realized that, because Discord has a character limit, and I've been trying to fit my journal entries into that character limit, I've greatly limited the creative expression with which I used to write blog posts. I don't learn anything from these shorter entries. When I allow myself to go into long-form entries, I can write my way into creative breakthroughs and superior thought organization. This writing is one of the only times throughout the day that I'm not actively focusing on something whether that be an audiobook or poker studies. I give my brain free reign to think about whatever it wants and, when I do that, the creative surge that follows is both massively fulfilling and unsurprisingly full of useful ideas.

2) I need to incorporate a more language-based approach to learning poker strategy

Because I'm a particularly wordy, and extremely linguistically-oriented human, I learn far faster when I put anything into narrative form. While I have the skills to create a bunch of charts, they don't particularly help me beyond visual organization. When I write out explanations for answers, the rate at which I learn is drastically increased.

I've spent a good deal of time today adding explanations for many of my Anki cards -- particularly the ones I've had trouble remembering. While it may seem trivial, I have more than 2,000 cards representing the totality of the CFP strategy. Trying to remember all of this has pushed my working memory to the absolute maximum capacity and beyond. The explanations seem to help build conceptual frameworks that I can then more easily attach facts to. Something like, "the pool tends to overstab given turn probe opportunities" (this is an oversimplification of course) makes it easier to then attach the specific %s and sizes needed to build out nuance and complexity.

Again, while this may seem a slight detail, I've realized that occluded images are great for remembering things like preflop charts, but, for me, the fact that I cannot edit them and add explanations is a major drawback and hindrance. Not only do I have to delete cards that contain errors and restart (likewise for when I simply change my mind about the best strategic approach to a certain line), but I can't add the aforementioned explanations and I can't reread these explanations again and again when I get things wrong.

This simple change is going to allow me to internalize this system in an incredibly deep way at a far faster pace. I just had to adjust my approach to learning a bit. I spent a lot of time learning in a way that was very inefficient for me (and probably in general). While this was bothering me quite deeply the past week, I'm now extremely thankful as I've realized that my learning approach is now forever improved going forward. If I ever need to integrate a gigantic mass of information again, I know exactly how to do so. I know exactly how to build upon this system going forward as well. I'm in a very good place, fundamentally speaking. Complexity and creativity only arise once fundamentals are mastered. I'm on the road to doing exactly that.

3) I need more "anti-focus" time (term stolen from Elliot Roe)
On top of getting back to regular long-form journaling, I need a few periods throughout the day where I'm not trying to cram in more poker information or an audiobook. This isn't just important from a relaxation perspective, but it is actually far more important from a learning perspective. Without occasionally deacitivating the conscious mind, the subconscious isn't given ample enough opportunity to draw connections and generate breakthroughs.

Going forward, even when I'm not with my wife, I'm not going to listen to any audiobooks while at the dog park. I'm not going to purposely think about anything. I'm going to allow my brain to whatever it wants even if that means aimlessly pondering the menial aspects of existence. In the past, I usually tried to take one nap per day. Sometimes, I ended up just laying in the dark for twenty minutes because I wasn't tired. I think I'm going to bring this back. It doesn't matter if I sleep. The period is restorative regardless. Following a cessation of directed thinking, for even a brief period, I find that the level of my cognition temporarily soars to peak levels. I have to be mindful about purposefully creating these opportunities.

I would never design a physical training program for an elite with zero rest days, zero down time from training, and zero periods of relaxation. Doing the exact opposite for a mind-sport because it isn't as immediately obvious how destructive the practice is doesn't make any sense. It isn't just a matter of sustainability, but rather a question of the optimal way to learn anything. Research done on top medical students has shown that going beyond 8 hours per day of outside-the-class individual study confers no additional benefits. If that is true of anatomy and physiology, there is no way it isn't true of Poker, too. I'm working too much to the point that I'm accomplishing less because of it. Just because I can discipline myself to grind 12-14 hours a day, 7 days a week, 350 days a year doesn't mean that it is a good idea or something that should be lauded, admired, or praised (internally by me and my value system). Results are what matters.

Effort only matters insomuch as it helps produce better results. If you're efforting to the point of worse results, you've lost the plot. I've lost the plot. I can be more efficient by doing less. Why wouldn't I do this? Why wouldn't you want better results from less time spent? There's no rational way to justify working to the point where it is hurting results other than an addiction to work itself, which obviously isn't helpful.

Now that I am no longer moving my schedule about each day, I need to get back to set, defined times for every single activity so that I can control my output. Left to my own devices, I'll fill every waking second with something "productive"... which, ironically, is counterproductive.

Time to make a few changes to my process and get a little better.

Good luck at the tables everyone!
~Orca

Day #24 in Nacho's CFP: 9/28/24 Review

Health Metrics:
Total Sleep: * 8h52m
RHR: 66bpm
HRV: 15ms
Weight: 214.2lbs
Steps: 10526

*I was able to successfully shift my bed-time to 3AM by incrementally moving my circadian rhythm 15-30 minutes per day. The first time I tried, I just jumped straight to a new time and it was a disaster. Now, I'm getting 9 hours of sleep with a 3AM bed time. That's a considerable win in my book because this now means I will be able to take advantage of the most profitable playing hours instead of playing during times when the tables are mostly filled with regs.

Health Habits:
Meditation: Complete, 22/22
Gym: Complete, 21/22

Mental Game Development:
Reading: The Art of Learning by Josh Waitzkin

Poker Strategy Development:
Anki: 728 cards in 2.5 hours
Studying CFP Strategy: ~5 hours
GTOW Drilling: ~2.5 hours

Thoughts on the Day
Right now, I'm awkwardly struggling to integrate exploitative play with the 100% solver-based strategy I was previously using during my GTOW drilling. The simplified-and-exploitative approach I've laid out based on the MDA incentives provided in the CFP often necessitates making plays that I know the trainer will grade as -EV mistakes. In the past, using the trainer feedback, I became good at making very few outright "mistakes". However, what has now become clear is that, while I was making the "correct" plays, my frequencies were not even remotely close to accurate. At the microstakes, many regs are still making massive blunders so not making major mistakes was often enough for me to do well. However, at the higher levels, most players make less outright blunders and, instead, their big mistakes come in the form of bias creating incredibly exploitable tendencies in their frequency profiles. That's clearly what I was doing and integration of the new method has proven difficult thus far. I'll keep working on it. I'll be ready to one-table soon.

Good luck at the tables everyone!
~Orca

Day #23 in Nacho's CFP: 9/26/24 Review

Health Metrics:
Total Sleep: 7h4m
RHR: 65bpm
HRV: 17ms
Weight: 214.0lbs
Steps: 5,112

Health Habits:
Meditation: Complete, 21/21
Gym: Complete, 20/21

Mental Game Development:
Reading: The Art of Learning by Josh Waitzkin

Poker Strategy Development:
Anki: 614 cards in 2.2 hours
Studying CFP Strategy: ~6 hours
GTOW Drilling: ~3 hours

Thoughts on the Day
Ended up missing a dog walk and the gym to spend more time studying. Dumb. Undisciplined. Out of character for me. Won't do it again.

Feeling internal pressure to restart playing ASAP. I don't know why. It doesn't matter to anyone if I spend 3 weeks of prep, 4 weeks of prep, or 5 weeks of prep -- not even me. I'll never even remember that detail in the long run.

When I first started playing poker, I spent well over two months studying 10+ hours a day in GTOW before playing a single hand against real opponents. I never felt like I wasn't going fast enough. This isn't any different. I'm rehauling my entire strategy. There's a lot to remember. In the end, I can't do any more than as much as I can. And I'm doing as much as I can. That should be enough. That IS enough.

Good luck at the tables everyone!
~Orca

Day #22 in Nacho's CFP: 9/26/24 Review

Health Metrics:
Total Sleep: 7h56m
RHR: 64bpm
HRV: 17ms
Weight: 215.5lbs
Steps: 8,907

Health Habits:
Meditation: Complete, 20/20
Gym: Complete, 20/20

Mental Game Development:
Reading: The Art of Learning by Josh Waitzkin

Poker Strategy Development:
Anki: 503 cards in 1.91 hours
GTOW Drilling: the rest of the day

Thoughts on the Day
Every day brings me that much closer to getting back to playing. I'm realizing I shouldn't have spent so much time making all of those charts. In the end, they haven't even been particularly useful. Lesson learned. I'm trying not to get too annoyed with myself for how long this preparation process is taking, but it is what it is. I'm going as fast as I can and doing as much as I can humanly do in any given day. There's nothing more I can do.

Good luck at the tables everyone!
~Orca

Day #21 in Nacho's CFP: 9/25/24 Review

Health Metrics:
Total Sleep: 7h43m
RHR: 61bpm
HRV: 19ms
Weight: 213.7lbs
Steps: 8,183

Health Habits:
Meditation: Complete, 19/19
Gym: Complete, 19/19

Mental Game Development:
Reading: The Art of Learning by Josh Waitzkin

Poker Strategy Development:
Anki: 205 cards in 44 minutes
GTOW Trainer: ??? Unsure how many hands, a lot
Creating Simplified Strategy Documents: Many hours

During my Anki drilling today, I had to confront the fact that the occluded game tree images on Anki aren't working very well to help me memorize the CFP strategy. There is just too much material on each one and that material is displayed in such a way where I can gather contextual clues to get the right answer even when I don't really know. Ultimately, I decided to just suspend those cards and use much simpler, text-based cards. I've realized that I am not going to be able to memorize the most complex and nuanced version of the strategy right off of the bat. All I need to do initially is memorize the simplest and most basic elements to begin playing. I'm going to finish drilling the rest of the formation groupings with that in mind.

Thoughts on the Day
With all the hours I am putting in, I still feel as if there just isn't enough time in the day. I am going to bed now because it is time to do so and not because I actually need to rest before putting in more work. I could keep going for several more hours. I'm eager to move forward. I'm eager to get back to my previous routine of balanced study and play.

Good luck at the tables everyone!
~Orca

Day #20 in Nacho's CFP: 9/24/24 Review

Health Metrics:
Total Sleep: 7h44m
RHR: *64bpm
*HRV: 22ms
Weight: 215.5lbs
Steps: 10,777

Health Habits:
Meditation: Complete, 18/18 -- yesterday, I logged that I didn't finish my meditation but that's only because I wrote my post right before I meditated. I went straight to bed and forgot to go back and update it.
Gym: Complete, 18/18

Mental Game Development:
Reading:
1) Grit by Angela Duckworth
It is just about time for bed so a full review of this book will have to wait for another day. However, I will say this much... I'm at a point in my life where I'm no longer moved by the intensity or duration of any given effort. For me, satiation can only be derived from completion. The task at hand is to become a winning, high-stakes poker player. I will stop at nothing until the job is finished.

2) The Art of Learning by Josh Waitzkin

Poker Strategy Development:
Anki: 410 cards in 1.57 hours
GTOW Trainer: ~2000 post-flop hands
1) Completed drilling for all "vs. Regs" strategies in 3bet and 4bet formation groupings
2) Began drilling for "vs. Fish" strategies in SRP formation groupings

12/24 Formation Groups Drills Completed so far...

Thoughts on the Day
My motivation is at an all-time high. My only complaint about today's work is that I didn't have time to do any more. I'll be back tomorrow for more.

Good luck at the tables everyone!
~Orca

Day #19 in Nacho's CFP: 9/23/24 Review

Health Metrics:
Total Sleep: 7h27m
RHR: *65bpm
*HRV: 21ms
Weight: 214.1lbs
Steps: 7655

Health Habits:
Meditation: Complete, 16/17
Gym: Complete, 17/17

Mental Game Development:
Reading: Grit by Angela Duckworth

Poker Strategy Development:
Anki: 243 cards in 55 minutes

GTOW Trainer: 1400 post-flop hands
Post-Flop Only, Full Hands
1) Blind vs Blind in SRP vs Regs, 200 hands
2) OOP PFR in 3BP vs Regs, 400 hands
3) IP PFC in 3BP vs Regs, 400 hands
4) IP PFR in 3BP vs. Regs, 300 hands
5) OOP PFC in 3BP vs Regs, 100 hands

7/24 Formation Grouping Drills Completed so far...

Thoughts on the Day
By actually playing through the formation groupings, the strategy really comes to life. When I was plotting out each game tree for each formation grouping, I didn't get an accurate sense of which lines were most important nor did I truly get a feel for how I should be maneuvering the pool towards certain exploit opportunities. When you actually start playing through hands, it very quickly becomes clear that 80-90% of your volume in a given formation grouping is going to run through a mere 3-4 betting lines. The other nodes are rare and just not that critical. This "drilling", which is really just practice play with the new strategy if I'm being honest, is giving me a much more accurate sense of what I need to focus on to execute with a high degree of accuracy against real opponents. My immediate learning goals will continue to focus primarily on being able to replicate the CFP strategy in simulated live play situations without having to reference the supporting CFP documents and the various charts that I've created on my own.

Good luck at the tables everyone!
~Orca

Day #18 in Nacho's CFP: 9/22/24 Review

Health Metrics:
Total Sleep: 8h49m
RHR: 60bpm -- lowest since 11/11/23
HRV: 23ms
Weight: 214.8lbs
Steps: 11,089

Health Habits:
Meditation: Complete, 16/16
Gym: Complete, 16/16

Mental Game Development:
Reading: Grit by Angela Duckworth

Poker Strategy Development:

Anki:
319 cards in 1.25 hours

GTOW Trainer:
Pre-Flop Only: 1000 hands
Post-Flop OOP PFC vs Regs: 300 hands
Post-Flop OOP PFR vs Regs: 300 hands
Post-Flop IP PFC vs Regs: 300 hands

Thoughts on the Day
Lately, I've consistently felt like there isn't enough time in the day to do all the things that I usually do. There's a simple reason for that: I'm averaging almost two hours more sleep per night. There literally IS less time compared to before.

I'm feeling less optimistic about completing all of the drilling and training that I wanted to do before Oct 1. Worst comes to worst, I'll just break that deadline. Luckily, I have a very forgiving boss when it comes to that kind of thing.... lol... During my interview for the CFP, the team manager told me that some people end up taking a month before they get started for real. I guess I'm destined to be one of those people at this point. With the way my personality is, I just can't imagine doing any more than I have any faster than I have. The slow return to the digital felt isn't for a lack of trying; I just don't want to try and perform without feeling fully prepared. If I tried to start playing again now, I can't see how I wouldn't just revert to the same strategy I was playing before while only occasionally remembering some of the new material. What's the point in joining a CFP if I don't try to learn and apply all the material in earnest?

Well, I guess that's enough rationalization from me on why I might not make this Oct 1st deadline, lol.

Good luck at the tables everyone!
~Orca