Last blog I was complaining about missing goals for this year and nothing has changed really. I just need something to hold on to because if I just live my life it results in bad behavior. I don’t do drugs, my life ain’t a big mess and I still value my family & friends the way I should. That means that I might be making a big point out of something that some people would consider as minor problems and I’m not saying that isn’t the case but I’m still unhappy with the way things have been going lately.
It isn’t all poker related but everything relates with each other. Discipline has been one of my greatest assets the last years but that wasn’t always the case. If you live your life from day to day it’s hard to by disciplined. To be disciplined you need to look at a bigger picture and when you have long term goals, it’s easier to think in a bigger picture. The first time I used this was when I wanted to lose a lot of weight. I’ve mentioned this more then once in my blog so I won’t go into that but from that period onwards (2007) I’ve always managed to reach my goals, whether it was poker, cycling or my health. Lately I have been enjoying life way to much. It already started in the summer of last year when I stopped looking at what I was eating and gaining a bit of weight on a monthly basis. I always enjoy summer a bit more then any other period of the year and I don’t think it’s a bad thing. This year however it didn’t stop in September, I kept gaining weight every month and basically used the SNE chase as excuse to not pay any attention to it. My poker discipline was of course superb in that period as I managed to reach my poker goals so it wasn’t all that bad.
This year however I’ve already written twice in my blog I would do something with the extra weight I’ve gained but up till now I haven’t done a thing. I’ve been going to the gym, I’ve been cycling a lot more the last 1,5 week but that’s not going to cut it. In 2008 after I finished my weight loss goal I was 92kg(coming from 133kg), I made a promise to myself to never go above 100kg. Last December I already reached the 100kg threshold and was under the assumption I would fix that as soon as I got back from the PCA. I’ve been working out but didn’t cut my eating and drinking. If I continue like this I will probably gain 1/2kg each month and maybe a little more during the summer. For the coming 12 weeks I will enforce some discipline upon myself again. I’m going to eat less, eat more healthy and stop drinking alcohol except the weekends I planned to go away with friends and two other occasions. It would be better to not drink at all which I normally did so I’m already half assing it but this is a calculated risk. The 12 week period ends at the 6th of June, the day I leave for Las Vegas. Since I’m going to Las Vegas with my poker buddy (and not my party buddies) I doubt I will gain a lot of weight there and that means I should be fit when I return from Las Vegas to look good on the picture’s of my mother’s marriage at the 24th of June. Today I’m at my 3,5 year high of 103,6kg and hope to get it down below the 95kg. I will keep track of my weight in the same excel sheet as where I keep track of my VPPs for this year, which should help a little as I’ll be confronted with it on a daily base.
Now this might sound like something that has nothing to do with poker but it actually has. I drank a lot of alcohol on Saturday evening but felt okish on Sunday. I even went out for a ride on the bike but it still affected my play on Sunday evening. I couldn’t focus enough on my game and was looking for excuses to quit playing all the time. I extended my break for 45 minutes and already quit my grind at 02:40. I wasn’t really losing loads, I didn’t feel sick but my mental state just wasn’t good enough. That has everything to do with alcohol and the way I’ve been “managing” things lately. I’m not the best player around and being 80% just doesn’t work for me. My mental state should improve when I feel more fit and when I don’t drink. The fact that I’ve been writing about this for the last months just says a lot. It really ain’t that bad yet but I’m stepping in before it does. After the 6th of June I will allow myself to enjoy life a bit more again as it’s summer when I’m back from Las Vegas. It’s fine to enjoy life, I think everybody should but it’s also important to balance things out. Some people can do that within the week itself, some people balance things on a monthly base and others don’t really have to think about balancing things but for me it just doesn’t work that simple. It’s not like I won’t enjoy life at all the coming time, I’ve just been overdoing it during the last months and now I’ll have to pay the price. I’m actually not that happy with writing all this stuff down but I think it’s necessary to commit myself to it.
Next to complaining about the good life I’ve been planning what SCOOP tournaments I want to play. Since I’m not a tournament player I think the “High” tournaments are out of my league so I will only be playing the Medium and low tournaments. To bad there is only 1 Fixed Limit tournament which is 6-max as well, a Full-Ring Limit tournament might be the only “High” I would have played. Sure there is a good reason for this as the Full-Ring Limit Tournaments were never the most popular ones. For now I’ve made the following schedule:
– #2 Sunday 8th of May, NL Hold’em Low $22
– #2 Sunday 8th of May, NL Hold’em Med $215
– #9 Wednesday 11th of May, Mixed Hold’em [6-Max] Low $22
– #9 Wednesday 11th of May, Mixed Hold’em [6-Max] Med $215
– #19 Sunday 15th of May, NL Hold’em Low $22
– #19 Sunday 15th of May, NL Hold’em Med $215
– #20 Sunday 15th of May, NL Hold’em Low $22
– #20 Sunday 15th of May, NL Hold’em Med $215
– #27 Wednesday 18th of May, Razz Low $22
– #27 Wednesday 18th of May, Razz Med $215
– #29 Thursday 19th of May, 8-Game Low $33
– #29 Thursday 19th of May, 8-Game Med $320
– #31 Friday 20th of May, NL Hold’em [1 Rebuy, 1 Add-on] Low $22
– #31 Friday 20th of May, NL Hold’em [1 Rebuy, 1 Add-on] Med $215
– #32 Friday 20th of May, NL Hold’em FL Hold’em [6-Max] Low $55
– #32 Friday 20th of May, NL Hold’em FL Hold’em [6-Max] Med $530
– #36 Saturday 21st of May, HORSE Low $22
– #36 Saturday 21st of May, HORSE Med $215
– #38 Sunday 22nd of May, NL Hold’em Main Event Low $109
– #38 Sunday 22nd of May, NL Hold’em Main Event Med $1050
I’m not sure about the $1050 Main Event yet but I should be playing all the others. I really like Razz and think I’m not really bad at it. HORSE & 8-Game or more for the fun of it and of course the regular NL tournaments should be fine to play. Have a look yourself:
I’m looking forward to the coming period. It starts in two weeks with playing live tournaments in Venlo and it ends with the WSOP 2011 in Las Vegas. Next week I will go into the results of March which haven’t been that good but I still hope to finish in the green, tonight’s session should be a good place to start.
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