Omaha rollercoaster

easy solution. make more money, and get off GG while you're at it.

I mean I agree 😃
I didn't start actually tracking my expenses until last year when I started to learn more about budgeting and personal finance and trying to increase my financial literacy. And when I found out how much I was spending I was kinda astonished tbh. But here's a breakdown.

Rent = €1100/mo
electricity/internet/heating/utilities = €200/mo
Server to run monker on = €500/mo
RIO elite + PLOMM = +-€4k/year = €333/mo
Netflix+YT premium+few other random subscription services = roughly €67/mo
CBD/CBN oil and mindlabpro (don't really take other supplements) + buying coffee for my machine = roughly €250/mo
Groceries = €700/mo (lots of steak for me)

These are what I would call necessities and things I cannot avoid spending money on really.
These cost around €3150/mo

Then considering that Each month I'll want to eat out sometimes or go on activities to some places, it'll add up another €1k/mo typically
Then the occasional holiday or shopping.
Then the occasional gift for my fiance or other people when they visit (parents last christmas).
Then the occasional transaction fees or scams etc.

It all adds up and makes sense why I spent around €5k/mo last year.
Although now that I'm actually budgeting every single item I buy, it may be possible to cut costs in some areas.

server's very neccessary for me.

I've run thousands of sims. Generally I'll work on big picture/aggregate report type of stuff. And if I want to sim an individual spot or hand I can still do that on my server, and yeah it's basically running some sims 24/7.

yo ... stumbled onto your blog, and have just been reading reading reading ... :-)
now wanted to give a shoutout, really inspiring stuff, love your consistency and discipline, especially when you see an issue/challenge, you go at it very methodically ... good job.

few comments:
1. read atomic habbits too, liked it very much.
been doing a lot of self-improving/live-coaching myself, if you are interested go check out (on youtube) the stuff from David Bayer and David Ghiyam, opened my eyes in so many levels about habbits, limiting beliefs/competing beliefs, how to improve myself (in life), which then automatically translates to poker too (just had one of my best trips ever, without playing any differently from what i can tell on a technical level,, just with a much better mindset in general)
2. i'm a plo live player, the 1/2-5 and 5/5/10-20 at Aria my main games, switching back and forth, do very stringent table selection ... so can only say good for you if you do that too online, i managed to take my ego really out of it, i'm there to make money, and if i'm on a table where i know everyone and also know that they play as well as me (and some even better), i don't have to be there, there's enough other games available.
3. i'm thinking about doing more online again (used to play a lot online when i was younger, but basically quit it for live play, enjoy it more, also think i fell behind online (bc i'm not really good at using all the tools that are available today), it's just so comfortable being able to play any time and anywhere you want, without hassle and/or additional costs (i have to basically travel every time i wanna play, no games where i live). Looked into monker, but that seems to be a steep climb for me, what other tools could you recommend for a winning live player to get back into the online grind, and get a more solid theoretical foundation? thx for any advice.
4. and, last but not least, the most important part: congrats on the engagement, you 2 look like a very happy couple.

cheers

1. Thanks for those youtube links, will check them out.
2. Agreed game selection is important. I've found a lot of times when I can have 9+ tables running, it's best to close some of the tables where I have bad seats and just focus on the ones with the good seats.
3. I think that most people just use either Vision or PLOtrainer, which are basically the most popular GTO libraries for PLO and I guess quite good. But I'm not sure, I really don't play live. I'd imagine live poker has tons of multiway situations or like limped pots and that's like not so common in GTOland (unless you play with large ante maybe). Learning some GTO fundamentals can't hurt though. I'd imagine huge parts of winrate in live environments, comes from just playing with max focus, good patience, and playing solid.
4. Thanks so much!

re. 3.:
From what i'm reading and (hopefully) understanding what you're saying is, a transition from live to online is actually not that easy (bc, yes, tons of limped and/or multiway pots, experience that every day), also 8 or 9handed, online it's all 6max i assume.

my idea was to basically open up a second source of income (online), to not be so dependent on live poker, have more options ... but starting to see that they are probably more different from each other than i previously thought.

re. 1:
Bayer has a pretty good book to, forgot, it's called "A changed mind"

Hmm, I wasn't thinking of how hard it is to transition from live to online, just thinking what tools to recommend.

I've never done such a transition from live to online myself. From what I know a lot of people transition from online to live but not the other way around. And the guys who focus on live, many of them still play some online from what I know but more as practice and not as their main form of income, since online is supposedly much tougher than live. If you can transition to online and do well in the games then you should be crushing in live I suppose.

January 2025 recap

K, well deciding to call it quits for the month. Struggling with sleep recently and want to fix that over next couple days. After having the best month in my PLO career so far (still over $10k away from poker career best ever) I feel like I can end the month positively and get the year off to a great start.

I won the big BBJ on PLO200 on GGpoker for $9312
Then on Chico I was on a table where a jackpot took place and got a table share for like $2300 or something.

Haven't been able to track hands on chico much until I figured how to get drivehud to work there.

January 2025: GG + Chico PLO200 and PLO500
Hands played: +-22,000
Hours played: 65
Hands per Hour: 337
Net Won: +-$4500
Net won + RB: $18,464
Net Won $/hour: $284
YTD: $18,464

About $11,600 of this comes from jackpots, well can't complain xD

Bit disappointed in the volume overall. After winning the jackpot I kinda slacked a bunch, while continuing to run good and basically catching up fully in EV for the month, which resulted in this great month. Doubt I'll be able to hit the 400k hand goal this year tbh, but I think maybe it's more important to focus on hours played than hands played. I mean the EV for me is higher on PLO500, so if I have 9+ tables open, I should honestly close a bunch of or maybe all of my PLO200 tables and the worst 500 tables and focus on 5-7 tables, I feel like that is the sweet spot for good volume while being able to focus and take my time with each decision.

I think I need a couple days to soak this all in, realize I'm definitely no longer in survivor mode now and tackle February and the rest of the year with vigor.

I'll continuously try to improve and upgrade my habits. I realized maybe grinding every single day, can be a bit difficult and it's hard not to take a day off in a month. I need to give myself a day off once a week I think.

In February I'll try grinding 6 days a week, taking Thursday mornings off (or Wednesday evenings in the US). Grinding 3-4 hours a day between 5AM and 10AM CET. Being less results oriented, and focused on playing A-game and table selecting decently well between GG and Chico. Would like to increase to 80+ hours played each month at least and will go for 80+ hours next month.

Pretty happy to have added chico, games seem relatively soft, and it's nice to be able to add a table or 2. Mostly still focused on GG, but eventually would also like to add ACR or coinpoker sometime later this year.

yo, just a thought (and if you've done this already, forget i said something ;-)

with all the precise data you have it should be possible to determine the exact sweet spot, where what you make more (due to higher rakeback, more tables) gets eaten up by lower EV (from more tables, less focus per decision etc.), so that you don't have to guess but can stay exactly below that point for maximum efficiency. makes sense?

nice jackpot win btw !

makes sense, though I don't think it's that simple.

Every individual session is a bit different. Maybe I'm a bit more or less focused one day, maybe one day there's a lot more regs playing, or another day games seem softer, all these things change the variables a bit. Ultimately I think it's best I just stay as present as I can in the moment and make the best decisions, not only strategically but also game selection wise.

Subbed

GL *and congrats on your success 😀

yeah, you are right, its not a spot but more like a range (due to too many variables)

but you said the most important part yourself: stay in the moment, focused, make good decisions ...this automatically limits the amount of tables you can/should play.
remember from my own time back in the day (prob. 15 years ago or so) when i was multi-tabling like crazy, you get to the point where it's all mostly automatic, you feel like a robot, which in turn means it's not really fun anymore ... and who wants to spend crazy amounts of time with something that's not fun???

Thank you 😀

It's a good point. Autopiloting too much in my past format is probably one of the reasons I took a year-long break from poker 😃

sub

Quite a lazy month so far, hopefully can put more volume in rest of the month. Around +3k with RB so far.

Main problem is I've almost lost motivation to grind PLO200, it seems like too low a stake now and just taking away focus from the 500 tables. And 500 doesn't always run but at the same time I don't feel confident enough/rolled enough to play 1k yet. So I'm in this weird limbo.

If there's no 500 running I basically quit sessions. If there is 500 running then if there's a lot of tables (say 5+) I'm happy and grinding only 500, while if there's like only 3 tables running I might add some 200 tables in although table selecting 200 accross more than one site is kind of a pain in the butt... It's a good system and adding chico was nice to get a bit more volume, but there's still not many 500 games running normally. I'm looking to add a 3rd site to my rotation sooner rather than later, it really seems like adding WPN or coinpoker will be able to significantly boost my volume. I check the WPN lobby and it seems like there's always at least 3 tables running at 2/4 - 3/6 at my grind times. Not sure about coin as I can't check the lobby without creating an account (which I wouldn't want to do until I want to play there I guess in case I'd want some affiliate deal).

Other than that, GG had maintenance last Friday (followed by unexpected Saturday maintenance), and so it was just another excuse to take a day off. And kinda got lazy and took a few more days off until this morning, was also just a factor of there being almost no action at 500 when I did check the lobbies. I think until I add a 3rd site. Just forcing myself to at least sit in at the start of every single day and rather than just check the lobby is a good system to make sure I at least try to play some volume that day, then if there's really no action on 500+ maybe take that day off anyways. Basically it seems like even if I try to grind everyday, I'll end up taking a day off due to lack of action on 500 or whatever.

Well I got my designated schedule, and now I got a system in place. So will just try follow it basically and then **** it if I don't put in as many hands as I'd like!

Zero Responsibility

I remember a few years ago, I was listening to some Jordan Peterson. He was talking about responsibility. Something along the lines of "the more responsibility you take on, the more meaning your life has". From what I'm aware, he means this both in terms of individual responsibility, but also taking responsibility for others.

I resonate with this somewhat. The problem is as a poker player, we don't have many things to be responsible about. Therefore self-management can be very difficult. I struggle myself to stick to the schedule I set, to grind everyday, and talking to other poker players, or reading other blogs, I'm aware that these problems are not uniquely mine but rather something that all poker players struggle with to some degree. I think this is one of the reasons why in poker, there's a lot of mindset or mental game coaches. TBH I've worked with some mindset/mental game/performance coaches, and like, I think almost all the things they say are kind of common sense and can be acquired simply through reading some self-help books or watching youtube videos on the topic. That being said, I can see why they exist and why the demand for such professionals would be there in the industry of poker. In a way though, I see that getting a mental game/performance coach, is one way of adding responsibility to your life, you become responsible towards the coach for paying him and sticking to your words. It's an expensive way to do it, but yeah, I understand why they exist.

But the thing about poker, is we have NOBODY to answer to. If I take a day off grinding poker, I don't stand to get any punishment, at least not immediately. It wasn't until I took not just one day off grinding poker, but an entire year + off grinding that I saw "oh **** I gotta start making money again haha 😃 ". If I was working in some office, I would probably get some warning for a single day off and if I kept repeating this offense I would probably get fired. There is no accountability in poker. There is no responsibility. This is why setting up ways to have accountability are so useful in poker. Or taking on more responsibility.

I truly believe, one of the reasons I would make some money in the past, only to throw it all away, is because I could, I had no responsibility to keep my money or to make more money than I needed for a certain period of time. Afterall, I had no one else to care for, and if I ever needed to make money for myself, well I could just grind a bit. **** consistency!

My reasons for looking to get into a serious relationship a few years ago had little to do with the thought of adding responsibility. But now I realize, now that I have a fiancé and a dog; now I'm planning for a wedding and holidays and a life with someone else. I'm planning to start a family. This is a huge responsibility, all of a sudden I'm responsible for much more than just myself. If I stop grinding, or throw money away, I'm doing a disservice to not only myself but to my dog, fiancé and future children. I have much more responsibility and accountability and this gives me many reasons to keep grinding and making money, even if I don't want to grind on a particular day.

Responsibility is one of the biggest ways to keep on giving yourself motivation to grind. The selfish reasons of simply "trying to be the best" or "make the most money", usually are not enough motivation to keep one grinding this game for a living in the long term. Perhaps you can sustain your motivation for a few years this way, but eventually most people find that selfish and extrinsic reasons are not enough. I hear a lot of sarcastic remarks such as "women are the rake of life" or "if you want to succeed in poker, forget relationships" or "you can't support a family from playing poker" or stuff like this when it comes to the 2+2 or reddit/poker jokes, but I think those viewpoints look at things from a very cynical and selfish perspective, as well as a more short-term perspective. In fact if I look up most highstakes poker pros who are crushing and have been in the game for 10+ years, the vast majority of them are married or at least in a serious relationship of some sort. So perhaps I could even argue, a poker pro should ultimately seek a serious relationship to boost or even save your poker career. When you take on responsibility, you do things, not only for yourself, but also for the sake of others. But being in a serious relationship is not the only way of adding responsibility to your life, although in my case, it has certainly proven to be one of the most effective methods. There are obviously many other ways to do this.

Getting some friends in poker, or being part of a study group, can also add responsibility. Having study partners, means you owe it to each other, to set up meeting times and dedicate time together to studying together.
Perhaps you could look to get into coaching, and be responsible for the success of your students.
Perhaps you could look to build a brand, start a vlog/blog or stream and be responsible towards your followers to keep providing them with entertainment or knowledge.
There's probably other ways to get involved in the business side of poker in some ways.

Ultimately there's many ways to add responsibility to your life, and the more responsibility you take on, the more meaning your life has, which ultimately gives you more reasons to keep pushing, to keep striving for improvement.

Happy Valentines day ♥

well said Sir

Preventing burnout and taking extended breaks

Burnout is a common issue for professional poker players. If you've been following this blog, you'll know that I'm certainly no stranger to this. Here are some effective strategies to prevent burnout.

1. Maintain a balanced Schedule:
- Set limits on Playing Time: Avoid playing marathon sessions by setting daily or weekly limits on play times. Set a specific schedule and stick to it. If the schedule says that after a certain time you quit the tables and don't grind anymore, stick to this and don't grind past this time!
- Take regular breaks: Incorporate short breaks during sessions to refresh your mind. I try to have two sessions of between 60-180min everyday, with a large 30+min break in between, but even between the 60-180min session I will often get off the computer a bit for a quick stretch or (or just to pee) and scan the tables and reset some tables for the sake of game selection.
- Scheduled days off: Right now I don't do this as tbh, I find playing only 2 sites I don't really have much action at my the times when I grind, so even if I tried to grind every single day, I find it isn't possible. However I believe once I add in a 3rd sites that will give me enough action every day to grind if I wanted and I'd choose to willingly take a day off each day. In addition to that, I would schedule longer periods of days off regularly, though I'd elaborate on that more later.

2. Focus on Mental and Physical health:
- Physical exercise: Physical activity is proven to reduce stress and improve mental clarity. Even short daily workouts or walks helps. I walk my dog 3 times a day, and I try to do a quick workout at home everyday that only lasts roughly 15 minutes. In addition once a week I'll try to do a more physical activity with my fiance (hiking, or some sport of our choice).
- Proper Sleep Routine: Maintain a consistent sleep schedule to improve focus and decision making. In order to wake up with a lot of energy and focus I should also sleep on time and have a good sleep routine.
- Nutrition: Follow a healthy diet to maintain high energy levels. Personally I like to follow intermittent fasting, while also using a highly reputable "luxury" food delivery service so that I can track my macros perfectly, whilst also saving time and energy on groceries/meal prep and not need to think much about food at all.
- Meditation and Mindfulness: Practices such as meditation, deep breathing exercises, or mindfulness can help manage tilt and maintain emotional stability. I also find cold showers to be a form of deep breathing. I do NSDR (non-sleep deep rest) regularly however, haven't kept up with the other meditative practices too much.

3. Study and Improvement:
- Balanced Study Routine: Alternate between playing and studying to keep the game mentally stimulating. I tend to study as much if not more than I play not only because I love studying and find grinding more like work, but also because I find learning new concepts motivate me to continue improving, which prevent burnout.
- Review sessions: Analyze hands after sessions rather than during, to separate playing from studying.
- Community interaction: Engage with other poker players or join study groups to learn and share experiences.

4. Manage Emotional and Financial Stress:
- Bankroll Management: Ensure you have a sufficient bankroll to handle downswings comfortably.
- Accept Variance: Understand that downswings are a big part of the game, and don't necessarily reflect poor play, especially in PLO
- Support network: Stay connected with my friends, family and my fiance, for emotional support and having people I can rely on outside of poker.

5. Maintain a Healthy Lifestyle and Hobbies:
- Non-Poker Activities: Develop hobbies or interests outside poker to give your mind a break. Personally I enjoy reading, playing board games, and engaging in physical activities with my fiance.
- Travel and Social Life: Balance poker with social activities, travel or time with my fiance to keep life fulfilling.

6. Mental Coaching and Professional Help:
- Mental Coaching: Consider working with a mindset or mental game coach to handle tilt and burnout.
- Professional Help: If burnout is severe, seek help from a therapist or counselor.

I think most of these are kinda obvious. However I'd like to get into more details on taking, and actually planning regular holidays or extended breaks from poker. In the field of high performance, and poker is no exception, I've found it's quite hard not to keep pushing ourselves. We feel like we need to keep grinding otherwise we are "lazy", then we take some extended unplanned break due to burnout and we come back we don't come back refreshed but instead hating ourselves and like the only reason we are back grinding is to prove we aren't "lazy" and to make the money back. This was one of the suicidal cycles that lead to my "1 year break" in 2021 from poker. Due to this, I've done a lot of research on effective break and "time off" management which actually help us to perform at high levels in the long run.

The fact is, I plan on being in poker until I retire, and I don't plan on retiring until I'm at least 60 years old. This means I probably got like another 30 years or so of poker left in my, which means I'm not even past the halfway point of my poker career yet, I'm basically around the first quarter of my poker career life cycle, which means I'm still relatively early on in my poker career. When you look at things this way, you start to respect longevity much more in poker. I don't look up to the guy who was the biggest winner for one or two years (or even 5 years) and then quit, but the guys who have consistently been grinding highstakes and doing well over decades. Patrik Antonius, Erik Seidel, Doyle Brunson, Daniel Negreanu and Phil Ivey (in no particular order) stand out to me as examples of poker pros with great longevity who have stood the test of time and are able to beat high stakes poker over changing landscapes.

So when it comes to taking breaks what seems to be the key to longevity?

1. Short Breaks (1 - 2 days off)
- Frequency: Once a week (already included in the weekly schedule)
- Purpose: To reset mentally, reduce fatigue, and maintain a healthy work-life balance
- What to do: Engage in non-poker activities, spend time with loved ones, socialize, or pursue hobbies

2. Extended weekends (3-4 days off)
- Frequency: Every 2 months (every 6-8 weeks or around 6 times in a year)
- Purpose: To fully recharge mentally and emotionally, especially after intense grinding periods or downswings.
- What to do: Mini-vacations, short trips, or simply disconnecting from poker and relaxing at home
- Tip: Plan these around important life events or special occasions to enhance life balance

3. Longer holidays (1-2 weeks off)
- Frequency: Every 4 to 6 months (2 times a year)
- Purpose: To fully disconnect, reflect, and prevent long-term burnout.
- What to do: Longer vacations or holidays abroad, ideally with my fiance. Focus on rest, exploration and fun.
- Timing suggestions: After a particularly profitable stretch or a challenging downswing, to reset mentally.

4. Mental Reset Breaks (2 to 4 weeks off)
- Frequency: Once every 5 years or when feeling mentally exhausted or unmotivated
- Purpose: For deep mental rest and reflection, which can reignite passion and motivation
- What to do: Travel, pursue new hobbies, spend quality time with loved ones, relax without poker pressure, or look for something spiritual (such as a meditation retreat, or even some ayahuasca retreat maybe)
- Tip: consider this in December or January to reflect on the past year(s) and set new goals

How this would work in practice:
- Weekly days off: 1 day per week (52 days per year)
- Extended Weekends: Every 2 months (4 days each, totalling 24 days)
- Longer holidays: twice a year (10 days each roughly, totally 20 days)
This would result in 96 days off each year, and if we add in roughly one month off every 5 years or so, it would be around 100 days off each year I guess.

Well since Valentine's day, I've caught a virus and have been very ill. It's forced me to take some time off grinding, and tbh it's been very refreshing. While I was sick, I realized I've felt some form of burnout. Since I came back to poker in 2022 I've only traveled twice abroad, once last year and once the year before. A lot of it was due to financial pressure and simply being in a situation where I needed to grind to pay the bills. I've grinded 400k+ hands each year since 2022, as well as studied more hours than I grinded. A lot of this pressure is gone now with my great results recently, as well as smart asset allocation and better personal finance decisions. Now I'm looking to set up habits for life. I'm looking for sustainability. The same "survival" mindset and motivation won't work for me, now it's more about thriving, now it's more about longevity. I'm really not worried anymore that I will eventually be playing 2k+, at this point, just continue with the process and it seems inevitable. The hard part of simply having to grind to pay the bills, of having to play with aggressive bankroll management to prevent moving down to a stake where I might not be able to pay the bills, of always having the fear of going broke again if I hit a big downswing, these fears are done. I'm no longer living on the edge. I'm comfortably playing stakes where I can more than afford the bills, but more importantly, I can focus on saving and investing for the future and living a fulfilling life.

Instead of calling myself "lazy" for not grinding while sick, I'm realizing I felt burnout, and perhaps I got sick because I was feeling symptoms of burnout coming up? For 3 years I was living on the edge, and now it's time to build something new. I won't punish myself this month for having low volume, instead I'll embrace it, and realize I've had one of my lowest volume months since 2020 and all I feel is gratefulness, for where I am and my situation currently. I'll consider this time off an "extended weekend" break at home, even though I do have that planned next month too.

Oh well, just some thoughts on burnout prevention, longevity in poker, and the importance of taking breaks. Granted, some of these strategies may not be available to you in your current situation, but if you want to be in poker for the long-haul, I suggest you at least try out as many of these as possible.

another great write-up, thx for that.
i wanna add something from my personal experience (also emphasizing/expanding on what you said):

mindset is key! like, key, key, key!!!
i've been doing a lot of personal development things/mindset things for a while now, for lots of different areas of life (not poker related at all), but realized how much this actually helped me also at the poker table, it's amazing, and the results speak for themselves.

besides for the standard/obvious stuff everyone thinks about (being more stable, better tilt control, etc.) i'm actually convinced now that i had some deep (wrong) beliefs about money (don't deserve it beyond a certain amount), that kept me from winning more and even subconsciously made me sabotage myself in certain situations (remember having had 2 deep runs in a huge field at Kings in Czech Republic), like 3000+ players, made it to last 20 back to back , and when i look at the hand that i busted with, that was just so stupid, i'd usually never do that, but in the moment it felt like a good play ... for the reasons mentioned above.

so, yeah, in summary:
do whatever you can do get your mind in the right place if you wanna be a professional player ... there's nothing more that's directly linked to your win rate imo.

Hey thanks for your posts 😀. I'd just like to say that other than the obvious monthly updates, I only really choose to post in this blog when I feel "inspired" to do it, some months I might not feel inspired at all. But seeing people here read and like, or reply to my posts, provides some motivation and inspiration to keep making posts.

Anyways, my perspective on what you wrote, is that mindset is certainly important, but tbh I don't really think we can say things such as mindset is more important than theory/skills. And I think trying to compare how important either is when it comes to success simply isn't very practical. The fact is, if you don't have the skills to beat the games you play, then you will lose no matter how great your mindset is. While mindset is kinda like, well as long as your mental game isn't total crap, if your one of the best players in the world skill/theory wise, you can still probably do quite good in poker.

However mental game and mindset are much bigger than only poker. The thing is, if you have the right mindset and strong mental game, you will probably be able to succeed in any endeavour you choose so long as you have some minimum amount of talent in it. So I guess I could say, having the right mindset and mental game, is something that anyone who wants to perform, or be successful, in any field, could benefit from, and therefore should try to improve to some extent at least. Having the right mental game and mindset can also simply improve life satisfaction, and other factors such as balance, longevity, etc. But still, to succeed in poker, and to be able to make money in poker, I still put a lot, maybe more value in having the theory down, having the skills necessary and having some amount of talent.

It's an interesting topic I guess, how important talent really is, especially in an endeavour such as poker. A lot of people reading my blog may think I believe talent isn't such an important factor, tbh you may be surprised. I think talent is definitely a thing in poker, though to the extent of how important is an interesting question, as well as asking, what talent in poker even entails. Probably a topic I'd like to touch on later some time in this blog.

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Changes to my diet and meal plan
Anyways, today I decided to start getting my food delivered to my door.

The service I've chosen is quite expensive, probably the most expensive service in Budapest. The service uses premium ingredients, as well as famous chefs who have or had experience in Michelin star restaurants. However compared to what I was eating before (lots of expensive steaks due to the keto/carnivore diet), it isn't actually so much more expensive, and I don't expect to spend much more on food than I already was doing (my monthly average prior to this was €1200 / month on food). In fact, I could be spending much more money on my current keto/carnivore diet if I could afford to simply eat t-bone steaks and ribeyes everyday, alas, I like to try to keep it a bit cheaper by having ground beef, lots of bacon and eggs, cheese and yogurts with berries, etc.

One of the reasons I enjoyed keto/carnivore, was because it got rid of the need to think about food, whilst (supposedly) being able to get all the nutrients I need (at least based on popular keto/carnivore science). Though tbh, I'm not dogmatic when it comes to diet. I simply don't like to spend a lot of time thinking about food, preparing food, cooking food. One of the benefits of the keto diet is it removes the hunger for long periods of time, so I could effectively do OMAD (One Meal A Day), making it one of the simplest diets to follow. And as someone who does love meat in general, it was a great option, even though I really don't seem to have any food intolerances really (maybe only to a few nuts if I eat too many of them?).

However I found I had a lot of cheat days, especially when going to restaurants or eating out, or if my fiance wanted to indulge in a cake or pastry one day, it was quite hard for me to resist the urge too. Especially over this winter period, when I'm stuck at home a bunch and without much pressure to show what I look like under my shirt.

I've gained a lot of unwanted weight. I currently weigh 90kgs and 187cm. A bit overweight, even if I got a medium amount of muscle, it's too heavy.

So I plugged my stuff into some macro calculator and it determined I should try to eat roughly 2100 calories a day on average to lose weight to my goal of 80kg or so.

So my plan is basically to eat around 2450 calories 6 days a week and do 1 full day of fasting each week.

The food delivery service I chose only works Monday to Friday so I would fast on Saturday, and on Sunday I would either eat out or cook something at home.

Here is next week's menu for Monday to Friday:

This is how it looks in terms of macros. Will be using the spreadsheet to track my weight (something I haven't done in a while)

If anyone would like a link to this spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e...

I'd basically be skipping breakfast (which I already do), and on my 6 eating days eat 2 meals a day (it would still be some sort of 16:8 intermittent fasting protocol). Will be eating a lot more carbs than before obviously, I think I'm quite metabolically healthy and can use both fats and carbs for energy quite effectively. My main concern is really just hitting my total calorie number, and hitting a certain minimum amount of protein each day. I really don't care so much about what type of foods I eat (though this service, uses premium ingredients and basically everything, even the "unhealthy" stuff is actually quite healthy"). I also don't care about the fat to carb ratio too much. Though from experience, I do notice I actually tend to sleep a bit better at night when I have carbs in my diet that day. But at the same time, there's nothing quite as energizing or as powerful as a nice large steak, but again, having expensive steaks everyday, simply isn't such an easy choice.

So, not sure how I'll be affected in terms of performance, mental clarity and energy levels, hopefully not too badly. In other terms. This may actually be even simpler than keto/carnivore to follow. I just put in 30min or so each week roughly planning my food, and then Mon to Friday I basically don't eat anything else, fast Saturday and Sunday can be a bit more relaxed/guesstimating. No need for grocery shopping (which I have been doing like 3 times a week in general tbh), no need to spend a lot of time cooking. Another big benefit is of course being able to eat a variety of delicious meals each week, I do actually love well prepared food. And not being looked at weird when I tell people I eat a "carnivore/keto" diet", which is generally not the most accepted diet by most people.

Well, excited to see how this experiment goes. Perhaps I don't find it to be worth it, but perhaps it opens up more energy and time to put into more important endeavours whilst also being able to lose weight and eat a healthy "balanced" diet.

Still haven't played poker in like a week now. Though I feel the itch is coming back slowly. Probably this weekend, I'll start grinding again after a deserved rest.

Peace

Insane meal prices. 32 usd for a shrimp fried rice in a country, where the avg salary is 1k usd…

It's true, most people here make poor salaries and cannot afford this obviously. The reality in this country is quite sad, where the average person has to live in poor situations since everything here is overpriced for them (even "cheap" stuff here, is not so cheap).

I very well might look for some alternatives to this as the prices are indeed "insane". But other options don't look so nice or healthy or dont have macro information, so we'll see.

Main point was talking about using food delivery mealplans for more time and energy to focus on stuff more important to me (poker and otherwise).

Hello guys,

It's been fun blogging, but unfortunately I've decided it is time to end the blog.

I was originally planning on continuing this blog until I reach PLO2k+, however recently I have gone through huge changes in my life. Me and my fiance have decided to break up. All my plans have changed (mostly outside poker, which also effects poker in some ways), and I need some time to ponder and think, what it is I want from life, what it is I want from poker, etc.

Perhaps one day I will come back to blogging, perhaps I will blog, perhaps I will simply remain quiet. Not sure. All I know is right now, I'm going to take some time off for myself, to think things through and make a plan of attack, that I'm going to pursue with full force.

It's been a pleasure.
Goodbye.

EDIT:
Thanks for anybody who reached out to me personally, but you don't have to worry. Personally I feel relief and freedom more than any sadness or regret. The break up was necessary.

FYI the break-up was completely unrelated to poker or my financial situation. I had a good month in poker despite BTC crashing and am doing great financially compared to a few months ago. It was simply a dysfunctional relationship that had to end and was beyond fixing. This isn't a relationship blog or super personal blog. So I don't want to get into too many details, but obviously from my perspective she had issues, while perhaps from her perspective I am the one with issues? As a healthy male I finally had to stand up for myself, and let her go. Anyways, it's been a pleasure.

Dang man, I'm sorry. Best of luck to you! Even if for the best long term, definitely doesn't mean it's easy in the short term.

Just came back to 2+2 after ages and clicked on the blogs section just to scan and saw your name. Just read through the blog from the beginning (had to scan through a few times) and came to to this ending. :(