How to Grind

I've taken everything but $2000 off the Interwebs as part of a plan (that I won't describe in much detail) to get me away from being as lazy as I have become over the past few of months. In this thread I'm just going to talk about the process of getting un-lazy. That's all.

My plan is to keep my BR growing and growing up to where I'm rolled for the nosebleeds. Surely that's where the real monies lie, no?

So I've always wondered... Why wouldn't someone like yourself, s a far better player than I, not do this?

Are high stakes so hard that unless you're ivey mafaka it ain't worth it? It's easier to make a decent hourly bot-multi-tabling the fuck outta the low-mid stakes? Do you keep withdrawing as much as you make so your BR just stays in one place?

wtf, yo?


(gl on yer operation btw )

Bills, savings, taxes, paying off a car, internal growth, peace of mind, stress reduction, mini-fridge, mini-air conditioner, hospital bills, $4/gallon gasoline, and other items.

It's not really an operation I guess, just more like something that I'm going to do that might be worth keeping some sort of a record of so I can look back on it in a year and laugh at how big of a fish I was.

Originally Posted by spoonitnow

internal growth

Elaborate on this one willyah?

I think the best thing about these blog threads is that it's an easy place to keep track of monthly progress. Gives some good perspective looking back.

Originally Posted by d0zer

Originally Posted by spoonitnow

internal growth

Elaborate on this one willyah?

"roll up chronic and hash"
-the game

Originally Posted by spoonitnow

$4/gallon

$4/GALLON OMG OMG OMG.

You people make me sick.

Originally Posted by spoonitnow

hospital bills

Originally Posted by d0zer

Originally Posted by spoonitnow

internal growth

Elaborate on this one willyah?

Go read a bit about performance psychology, meditation, and pick up a copy of Zen in the Art of Archery by Eugene Herrigel (not sure if I spelled that correctly) while you're at it. You might also like the Art of Learning by Josh Waitzkin and/or Elements of Poker by Tommy Angelo for this purpose. Those texts can explain this better than I can.

Originally Posted by dwarfman

Originally Posted by spoonitnow

$4/gallon

$4/GALLON OMG OMG OMG.

You people make me sick.

I'm sure that I have to drive much further on an average trip than you do on your little bitty baby country, so I can bitch about gas prices all I want.

Originally Posted by Warpe

Originally Posted by spoonitnow

hospital bills

Nunya.

A problem that I've faced for the majority of my NLHE full ring career has been balancing the quality of my play with the quantity. I know after months of study that my optimal number of tables to play to maximize my hourly win-rate at any given level is between 14 and 18 non-fast tables, and as such I tend to play 16 non-fast by default. This is a useful number for my purposes since it is the balance I mentioned earlier held for an hour's period of time.

Along the same lines, I've taken pains to figure out what the best length is for my sessions, and I've come to discover that I should probably be playing sessions that are between 120 and 150 minutes long. For similar reasons as above, this allows me to make the most efficient use of my time when planning out my sessions for the day.

There are other factors that go into planning out my day in terms of when I'll play poker and for how long. For one, I want to be in bed by 1 am to be awake by 7 am, so I won't start any poker sessions after 11 pm. Also, I like to have at least an hour break between sessions to clear my mind and do things that are more constructive than sitting in front of a computer all day.

The way all of this ties into not being lazy is that when approached incorrectly, these things can become excuses to ourselves not to put in more hours of study and play in each day. Instead, they should be used as guidelines as to how and when we should structure our play to get the maximum out of the time we're at the tables. When we put in a lot of time inside of a structure like this, we end up with close to the maximum possible results by combining efficiency with effort.

Good on ya spoonie. I just withdrew 3/4 of my BR and left enough to 8table grind my limit comfortably. I gots bills and stuff. And I know your situation is a bit different, where you're living off the grindin, but for me I'm merely a student of the game and the money is an added bonus. Also tilted away some of my FT point for a sweet flask too.

The Role of Faith

It can become particularly discouraging to play whenever the immediate results aren't there or if you're going through a rough patch of variance. It is in times like these that faith is of the utmost importance. And I don't mean faith in God or whatever -- I mean faith in the ability to take on a long-term edge with correct bankroll and life management to be successful.

Thanks for reminding me I should be meditating. I used to do it regularly when I was younger, but sorta lost touch with it.

I'm pretty confident that every poker player would benefit greatly from practicing meditation techniques, both in the downtimes, and in the heat of the moment.

Poker certainly can fuck with your head, and it's good to have a strategy to center yourself again. ...to catch your mental balance. Bong hits and beer are probably not the healthiest 'strategies' in the world...

I'll check out those books...

Originally Posted by d0zer

Thanks for reminding me I should be meditating. I used to do it regularly when I was younger, but sorta lost touch with it.

I'm pretty confident that every poker player would benefit greatly from practicing meditation techniques, both in the downtimes, and in the heat of the moment.

Poker certainly can fuck with your head, and it's good to have a strategy to center yourself again. ...to catch your mental balance. Bong hits and beer are probably not the healthiest 'strategies' in the world...

I'll check out those books...

Elements of Poker directly corresponds to poker the most of the three, and the Art of Learning is a close second, though it deals primarily with chess and tai chi chuan.

June 27, 2008



Daily Hourly Goals
Fri 27 [6.03/6.00]
Sat 28 [_.__/6.00]
Sun 29 [_.__/6.00]
Mon 30 [_.__/6.00]
Tue 31 [_.__/6.00]
Wed 01 [_.__/6.00]
Thu 02 [_.__/6.00]

June 28, 2008



Daily Hourly Goals
Fri 27 [6.03/6.00]
Sat 28 [6.02/6.00]
Sun 29 [_.__/6.00]
Mon 30 [_.__/6.00]
Tue 31 [_.__/6.00]
Wed 01 [_.__/6.00]
Thu 02 [_.__/6.00]

now this is just getting silly, at least play 100nl ffs

I, somewhat obviously, disagree. However, I'm not really up for putting out my particular reasons for this, so it's not worth discussing.

June 29, 2008



Daily Hourly Goals
Fri 27 [6.03/6.00]
Sat 28 [6.02/6.00]
Sun 29 [6.08/6.00]
Mon 30 [_.__/6.00]
Tue 31 [_.__/6.00]
Wed 01 [_.__/6.00]
Thu 02 [_.__/6.00]

is this a temporary goal? 7 dyas a week jeez

Morning Routine

For a long time I've had a bit of a routine for my mornings that I go through that wakes me up and gets me ready for the day. I typically go to bed between midnight and 2 am, and typically wake up between 6 am and 8 am. The first thing I usually do after waking up is take a shower and all that goes with that, and after I get out I stretch my body out for 10-15 minutes taking extra time for my spine and neck. For another 15-20 minutes or so I'll sit quietly in the floor and attend to my breathing and posture. Then I get up, grab a small breakfast, and check my e-mail and the forums, etc. The whole routine takes about an hour, and then I'm ready to play poker or whatever it is I have to do for the day.

Originally Posted by Da GOAT

is this a temporary goal? 7 dyas a week jeez

In a way, yes. It's more of a stepping stone in the direction of 50-55 hours/week regularly, though.

I don't really see what's the big deal and why people think it's such a huge thing. When I was working in construction in my early teenage years and later, it would be an average 45-minute drive one-way to work, and 9-11 hours at work including an hour lunch. This came to 10.5-12.5 hours of my day five or six days each week being taken up by my $10/hour (at best, it was less when I was younger) job. Then I was also sleeping a few hours more each night because of the physical demand framing requires if you give a shit about your job. The overall effect was that work took up a much, much larger portion of the time I was awake than poker would if I was playing even 8 or 9 hours a day, seven days a week.

Ultimately I haven't decided on what my overall goal is going to be in terms of some hourly schedule, but it will probably be at least 50 hours/week, and might even push 60 hours/week. And yes, I can already hear people now saying that I would never be able to hold that pace for any significant portion of time and retain my win-rate. But most of that same group of people wouldn't be caught dead doing real work for the same amount of time each week, much less when they were 14-15 years old, so I don't think they have enough authority on the subject to be commenting.

Its cool if you can do it man, wish you the best.

June 30, 2008



Daily Hourly Goals

Fri 27 [6.03/6.00]
Sat 28 [6.02/6.00]
Sun 29 [6.08/6.00]
Mon 30 [2.95/6.00]
Tue 01 [_.__/6.00]
Wed 02 [_.__/6.00]
Thu 03 [_.__/6.00]

First, I'm retarded and in my previous posts noted that there are 31 days in June, which there are not.

Second, yesterday I got caught up reading Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance which was accountable for my lack of play, and will probably be accountable for a similar lack in play today.

Third, June is over, so it's omg tax time again. A bright side of having a shitty month is that you have to pay less taxes for that month

July 1-4, 2008



The past five weeks have been seriously laughable. I’ve ran sooooo bad that it’s not even funny. To give you an idea, I’ve ran bad enough just on AI EV that I could have paid my car off, paid two months worth of bills and still had money left over. I’m still up money though, which is pretty remarkable in my opinion, considering that for the majority of June I was down with sets, and before yesterday I was down with every type of hand High Card up through Full House for July.

Recently I’ve been reading a lot and that’s resulted in less poker than I had planned. I’ve seriously been reading for 8-12 hours/day the past few days. I’ve finished Zen in the Art of Archery, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Born Standing Up, The Analects, Elements of Poker, and a number of shorter texts. A few of these were re-reads, but they’re still good obviously.

But anyway, it's time to get back to a regular schedule in time to take advantage of the double VPPs on PokerStars.

Daily Hourly Goals
Fri 27 [6.03/6.00]
Sat 28 [6.02/6.00]
Sun 29 [6.08/6.00]
Mon 30 [2.95/6.00]
Tue 01 [2.70/6.00]
Wed 02 [0.87/6.00]
Thu 03 [3.93/6.00]
Fri 04 [3.12/6.00]
Sat 05 [_.__/6.00]
Sun 06 [_.__/6.00]

July 5, 2008



Daily Hourly Goals

Fri 27 [6.03/6.00]
Sat 28 [6.02/6.00]
Sun 29 [6.08/6.00]
Mon 30 [2.95/6.00]
Tue 01 [2.70/6.00]
Wed 02 [0.87/6.00]
Thu 03 [3.93/6.00]
Fri 04 [3.12/6.00]
Sat 05 [5.68/6.00]
Sun 06 [_.__/6.00]

July 6, 2008



Daily Hourly Goals
Fri 27 [6.03/6.00]
Sat 28 [6.02/6.00]
Sun 29 [6.08/6.00]
Mon 30 [2.95/6.00]
Tue 01 [2.70/6.00]
Wed 02 [0.87/6.00]
Thu 03 [3.93/6.00]
Fri 04 [3.12/6.00]
Sat 05 [5.68/6.00]
Sun 06 [2.48/6.00]

A combinations of two problems I've been having for the past few weeks are really hurting my ability to put in some good hours. The first problem is that my girlfriend has had some health problems that require her to go to various doctor visits on average about twice every three days. The second problem is that she can't drive because of the side effects of one particular medication she's on and the nature of her health problems, so I have to play taxi driver all over four counties for this.

To possibly solve this issue, I've decided to switch from three sessions of 2 hours each to two sessions of 2.5-3 hours each. This is also a natural step in the progression of what I've been working on over the past week and a half, and I think that I have overcome the majority of the mental blocks that have been holding me back.

Kill it spoon... your still the same player that crushed 200nl for 12k+ or whatever in a month!

July 7, 2008



Daily Hourly Goals

Fri 27 [6.03/6.00]
Sat 28 [6.02/6.00]
Sun 29 [6.08/6.00]
Mon 30 [2.95/6.00]
Tue 01 [2.70/6.00]
Wed 02 [0.87/6.00]
Thu 03 [3.93/6.00]
Fri 04 [3.12/6.00]
Sat 05 [5.68/6.00]
Sun 06 [2.48/6.00]
Mon 07 [2.85/6.00]

I saw you at some $100nl tables again, moving up because the bankroll allows or something else? (for some reason I thought you said you're bankroll would allow it before but you were moving down for whatever reason) Anyway, keep killing it!

July 8, 2008



Daily Hourly Goals

Fri 27 [6.03/6.00]
Sat 28 [6.02/6.00]
Sun 29 [6.08/6.00]
Mon 30 [2.95/6.00]
Tue 01 [2.70/6.00]
Wed 02 [0.87/6.00]
Thu 03 [3.93/6.00]
Fri 04 [3.12/6.00]
Sat 05 [5.68/6.00]
Sun 06 [2.48/6.00]
Mon 07 [2.85/6.00]
Tue 08 [3.38/6.00]

Some fun hands:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2866367 -- Villain's recent play makes this an insta-fist-pump-snap-call. TT is seriously towards the upper end of his range.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2866368 -- Villain is on the tight side but even if his range is just {AK, KK} I have to make the call.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2866373 -- Second hand of the session which showed me what kind of a day I was going to have.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2863155 -- I thought my min-raise preflop was cute. Both of the guys in the blinds have been trying to 3-bet me randomly and all sorts of other shit so I figured it might get a response.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2856727 -- "Fuck" was all that I could think to say on this one.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2861384 -- Sigh.

I have a few more like this but I've turned this into a bad beat post enough as it is. Yesterday was just terrible both in and out of poker.

Originally Posted by spoonitnow

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2866373 -- Second hand of the session which showed me what kind of a day I was going to have. ... http://www.pokerhand.org/?2861384 -- Sigh.

Tough luck on those hands. Almost like Deja vu. Good luck!

Originally Posted by kmind

Originally Posted by spoonitnow

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2866373 -- Second hand of the session which showed me what kind of a day I was going to have. ... http://www.pokerhand.org/?2861384 -- Sigh.

Tough luck on those hands. Almost like Deja vu. Good luck!

Yeah I suck at copy and paste ldo

sick number of sick beats in a session. gross.

I'm glad I'm playing 100NL 6-max at stars so I don't have to play with spoon over at FR

It looks like my girlfriend will finally be going back to work Saturday after being right under my ass... err I mean, after having been home for over a month from medical issues. This is good news since it leaves me more time available to spend doing what I do. My next somewhat artificial goal is to clear a $1500 bonus on PokerStars via 100nl. Below are what I'll need in order to do this:

31650 VPPs
2.7 hands/VPP
~85455 hands
~100 hours

I'm curious to see how quickly (in terms of days) I can get this done considering I haven't played a lot of hours in the past days. With my girlfriend going back to work Saturday, that should change, and so this shouldn't be much of a problem.

Edit: I think I want to be finished by the 25th.

Originally Posted by spoonitnow

~85455 hands
~100 hours

Edit: I think I want to be finished by the 25th.

16-tabling - is stars so slow? or are you playing less tables now?
enjoy your work!

Originally Posted by daven

Originally Posted by spoonitnow

~85455 hands
~100 hours

Edit: I think I want to be finished by the 25th.

16-tabling - is stars so slow? or are you playing less tables now?
enjoy your work!

16-tabling I average about 850-900 hands/hour. Note that I never play fast tables.

Originally Posted by spoonitnow

It looks like my girlfriend will finally be going back to work Saturday after being right under my ass... err I mean, after having been home for over a month from medical issues. This is good news since it leaves me more time available to spend doing what I do. My next somewhat artificial goal is to clear a $1500 bonus on PokerStars via 100nl. Below are what I'll need in order to do this:

31650 VPPs
2.7 hands/VPP
~85455 hands
~100 hours

I'm curious to see how quickly (in terms of days) I can get this done considering I haven't played a lot of hours in the past days. With my girlfriend going back to work Saturday, that should change, and so this shouldn't be much of a problem.

In light of current life events and looking back at the volume I've always played while my girlfriend was at work, I've decided to nix this idea and work on something else instead since it will be a pointless goal that I'll make without much of a problem. I might post more here later, I might not, I dunno yet.

July 9-13, 2008



I'm onto something pretty sweet that will probably be the topic of my 2000th post if I decide to intentionally make my 2000th post about something specific. In a nutshell, it feels like everything I've ever learned about creating conditions for peak performance from different sources is clicking together really well.

Basically, for the past couple of weeks I've been working and tweaking things trying to get the point that I'm playing my best the entire time I put aside for poker. I feel like I'm getting really close to this goal while still being able to put in 6+ hours/day regularly.

Also, redzill4 has a new blog at http://redzill4owns.spoonitnow.com and my personal blog is there too but everything I post there is also posted here or in the community forum so you're not missing much.

July 14-17, 2008



Over this sample I'm down with sets, KK+, flushes and full houses. What the fuck?

So I'm starting to become curious -- could I run like this and be profitable? I think so, but it would probably require a severe expanding of my small-ball game, so we'll see what happens.

July 18-20, 2008



PokerStars reload bonus time woot.

July 21-23, 2008



What’s great is if you adjust for AIEV then my winnings are really over $330 for the period. I run so good *sarcasm*.

July 24-25, 2008

July 26-27, 2008

So I have a prop bet with someone who I'm not allowed to mention as per terms of the bet that I won't post on FTR outside of the commune for a set period of time that I'm not allowed to mention either lol. The bet starts at noon today eastern time and it's currently about five minutes until 9.

Originally Posted by spoonitnow

I've taken everything but $2000 off the Interwebs

Before you go, rather than add up all your updates, hows that online roll looking now?

Originally Posted by bjsaust

Originally Posted by spoonitnow

I've taken everything but $2000 off the Interwebs

Before you go, rather than add up all your updates, hows that online roll looking now?

It's not quite noon yet so I can still post.

Hell idk. I withdrew $500 to test Moneygram and paid a few hundo out for coaching and some other shit but my online balance is probably about 3k or so, I'm not really sure and I don't have PokerStars installed on the computer I'm on at the moment.

Not that it really matters.

You've posted in the beginner circle - so does that mean you're time has elapsed? if so ... an update please - your blog makes great reading.

Cheers!

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. Okay time to catch up on things.

I won the bet.

My girlfriend has [hopefully] figured out that she needs to leave me the fuck alone when I'm working, which should cut out on a lot of the stress involved with trying to put the appropriate hours in.

I'm almost satisfied with the things I've been working on at 50nl, but I'm going to take the next week or so and see if I can put them into play consistently while turning over a high volume of hands. If so then next Saturday I will definitely be playing 100nl again. If not then I'll probably be playing 100nl anyway.

The VPP/hand calculator at http://www.spoonitnow.com/vpp_calc.php is up and has values for the FR and 6-max samples I have been given. There are still a lot of levels that I need information for.

<spoonitnow> When I play 50nl, people tell me I should play 100nl
<spoonitnow> When I play 100nl, people tell me I should play 200nl
<spoonitnow> When I play 200nl, people tell me I should play 400nl
<spoonitnow> I don't understand you people

People are always on and on and on and on about why I would possibly want to keep playing 50nl, so out of the goodness of my heart I've decided to give an answer. Even when I was beating the crap out of 200nl FR I've felt like I wasn't that good at poker, so I've stepped down to work on that. I feel like I'm playing the best NLHE I've ever played right now, but I have a few things that I still want to work on, and for now I'm going to continue playing LOLnl.

When I do 6 ptbb/100 expected (after accounting for how I run on AIs) at 50nl for 50k hands I'll start playing 100nl again. My current hourly at 50nl is similar to my lifetime hourly at 100nl, so I'm not missing out on as much value as you would initially think in that regard. But then again there are people who think I should be playing 200nl or even 400nl, though I'm sure I'm not ready to jump back up that high just yet.

I just love you and want you to succeed.

Originally Posted by reDZill4

I just love you and want you to succeed.

Fag.

Here are my hourly goals for this week.

17 Sun [x.xx/4.00]
18 Mon [x.xx/4.00]
19 Tue [x.xx/4.00]
20 Wed [x.xx/4.00]
21 Thu [x.xx/4.00]
22 Fri [x.xx/4.00]
23 Sat [x.xx/4.00]

Week's goal: 28 hours at ~850 hands/hour for 23800 hands @ 3+ ptbb/100 for $714+ profit.

Originally Posted by spoonitnow

Originally Posted by reDZill4

I just love you and want you to succeed.

Fag.

lol, that made me laugh my head off.

Good luck with the grinding spoon

17 Sun [2.07/4.00]

Girlfriend had an episode that killed my morning then I ended up working on this 2-7 simulator all day. I'm going to make it up during the week, though.

18 Mon [4.18/4.00]

I think I'm done.