#10 - All The Moving Parts

When starting to blog again I was wise enough to realize that it might not be something I do forever, and that I might go extended periods of time without updating. That wasn't my plan, but life is funny in that way. No matter how you think the next few weeks or months look like - they almost always turn out differently. In my case, I have just had too much on my plate. I'm not making excuses, I don't really care to be honest. I am just living life!

It's 3:30AM and I woke up for no apparent reason and was thirsty, then needed to use the bathroom, then Rocky wanted to go out and I was then fully awake by this point. I got to sleep earlier than usual last night but getting up to do busy work at 3am is pretty rare for even me. I decided to check inbox's and one thing lead to another and here I am, blogging in the middle of the night. I will keep this one short to get some more sleep before I am up again in a few hours for a session with my coach.

I have been immersed in poker for the last several weeks, nothing new I know. But something has changed. I am hungrier to climb to the top than I have been in recent months, which I didn't even think was possible. I am learning a lot from each session with my coach and doing better and better at the tables. I am nearly to the point of considering myself a high-stakes MTT reg but still have some improving to do before I completely turn the corner from mid-stakes. To be 100% honest, the $50k Challenge was a product of me needing to stop the bleeding. I wasn't getting the desired results and variance was huge. I wanted to take more control of my poker destiny and figured it would be a wonderful approach to the coaching aspect of things for my students. Now I am just getting too good - I want to play the games where I have the highest EV. I am so hungry to progress in all areas of life, and playing (very) low stake SNG's every day wasn't stimulating me near enough. I pay a lot of money every week to be coached for 5-8 hours, learning how to better beat high stake MTTs, and then start registering SNG's and it just feels ... off. I will be one of the best online high stake MTT players next year, but only if I continue the path now. And that path includes playing the games. I'm not saying that I am going to stop playing SNG's, I am just chillin out on the crazy volume and playing more MTTs for now.

Disregarding those things, I simply haven't played many SNG's the last 2 weeks for other reasons too, mostly due to the MTT volume being too high when I do play and I have also skipped a handful of sessions to focus on off-the-table stuff. I have been hosting 2 students here at my house, one left yesterday and we clicked very well and we have made plans for a long term coaching deal in return for a percent of his profits. And the other guy is the one I have referred to in my blog before, the vegan from Germany, and he is headed out on Friday. Between the time I spend with the two of them, coaching sessions with hourly rate guys 8-10 hours per week, sessions with my coach every morning M-F, making sure I spend a lot of time with my dog Rocky, sneaking in exercise and basketball sessions with my roommate and being in love with my girlfriend Fernanda who lives with me, my free time is pretty damn limited - but I like it that way. I am also still working on putting together content for my students as well as getting a website up. I have a lot of cool things going on behind the scenes and am anxious to be to the point to share more with you guys about it all but right now isn't the time.

I am still on a 99% vegan diet, with the occasional chocolate or cheese product. I feel great and very rarely does meat sound appealing at all. I still need to amp up the fitness area of my life, and that will happen and I am not stressing over it. Now that my diet is so clean, it feels like less of a priority to worry about my physique. I stretch and stay pretty active in general, but haven't been doing T25 more than once per week.

In a few weeks, Fernanda and I are hopping on a plane and going to my cousin's wedding in Texas. We are SUPER siked to get to sneak in a little family time - it's tough being away from them all year-round. My sister has a 4 year old and a 1 year old and it kills me to not be around to be Uncle Brian. I love my parents and cherish the time I spend with them and hope life allows me to do more of that in the coming months and years.

I'll close with a few pics. Thanks for reading :)

Trip to Betty's for some vegetarian burgers

The grocery list

Up at 6am every morning for a 7am session with my coach

Spread from the top ranked Vegan spot in Tijuana 

A typical sandwich for me these days.....no meat, no cheese, hummus instead of mayo

My baby boy getting his medicated foot bath after one of our long walks

All these damn close calls the last week, time to break through!

#9 - $13,000 Score!, Crushing SNG's, Curriculum coming along and Vegan Student Progression

Hey guys, hope you are all well. Things have been consistently busy over here at the grind house in Rosa and I like it that way. I had a very productive week from several different angles. Some of the highlights include SNG $50 Bankroll Challenge progression, the vegan student going from nit-life winner to a go-for-the-throat type winner and will be a force very soon, I had my 4th biggest score of the year yesterday and I got a significant amount of work done on my curriculum that I am putting together.

My win rate is as high as it's ever been over my last 100k hands (10bb/100) and between my roommate and I, we are starting to rack up a lot of wins in major tournaments and we feel we are very close to being some of the better high stake MTT regulars. Obviously with that skill set, the SNG's become quite easy to crush, which naturally, is why I am indeed crushing them.

I won the $215 Tuesday Bounty Builder yesterday for nearly $13,000 total after all the KO's were accounted for and am extremely pleased with that result. It was one of those where I was just in position to execute solid fundamentals and take down a tournament, nothing crazy or out of the norm. It felt good to just execute and win due to simply out-playing the opposition. It's also nice to feel how normal it is to say that a $13,000 score is my 4th biggest of the year, it's a sign of progression. Scores of that size used to be a BIG deal, now it's 100% expected. I just feel like I have finally put in enough work and have a solid enough understanding that I belong in the $100-$200 MTT range. And speaking of winning, like I mentioned above - I am doing quite well since moving up stakes at the SNG's as well. I am not blind to the fact that variance can strike at any moment and make my pretty graph not so pretty, but I have a feeling it's only up from here. The skill set I bring to those games is so far superior to the opposition that it leaves a ton of room for me to have a massive ROI.

I have been doing a lot of one on one coaching and attaining as many reviews/testimonials as possible and I must say, I am doing quite well in that department. All my new clients are booking more and more hours as we dive deeper into the process and I will soon have a website displaying not only my testimonials, but my rates, my bio and stats, my blog, etc etc. And again, I am aiming to find players to work with on a long-term basis, and am seeking them out by doing a few hours with them and both parties realizing that we have the compatibility to work together long-term.

I am waking up for a 1 on 1 with my coach at 630am tomorrow and then grinding at about 8am. I will close with a few pictures and wrap it up here. Thanks for reading!

                                                      The $13,000 Score from yesterday

       
                                                                        SNG Progress

#8 - Learning To Teach, WSOP Trip, SNG Challenge Update, Pics

Hey guys, writing this with a sense of guilt due to the extended amount of time since my last post. I told myself I wouldn't let that happen, but life gets in the way of plans sometimes as we all know. However, the usual feeling of over-load and pressure one generally feels when piling their schedule to the max and leaving little free time has not set in on me lately. And if there were ever a time for me to feel overwhelmed with all the things I need to do on a daily basis - it would be now.

I am experiencing a period of acquiring information to become more educated and well-rounded in many areas of my life, as well as going through some drastic life-style changes that directly effect my day-to-day life. As readers already know, transitioning into a plant-based diet and giving up alcohol are the main two things I am referring to. But I am also exercising regularly again, which as we all know takes a rather drastic change in mindset and the actual execution part of it takes time and planning. On top of those 3 things, I have also been spending significant amounts of time educating myself on Veganism and how to optimize what we put into our bodies. I am also continuously learning and becoming closer to mastering a second language (spanish), and last but certainly not least - continuing to invest more time into mastering poker than all of these other things combined.

Today was pretty diverse and I spent at least 1 hour on every activity/task listed above. I had an extremely productive day by my standards, and it's only fitting that I am sneaking in an over-due blog post at 11:25 PM with a 7 AM coaching session waiting on me in less than 8 hours. I was, and still am, in the zone today. I spent 2 hours doing an exercise that involved me writing out in great detail what it takes to go from A-Z on the poker playing ability scale. Assuming A is a player who has never played, and I am Z. While doing this, I realized that I need to know the in's and out's of my craft better than I currently do. I am very capable of teaching everything necessary to become a winner in an organized, curriculum style fashion, but I have a lot of room for improvement. I had to be honest with myself today, and that's not always easy for everyone - especially poker players (haha).

After listing 75 things that I deem to be imperative knowledge to possess if you desire to be a winning professional at the games I play, I stopped listing things and started to take strides in the direction of furthering my own knowledge of the things I was adding to the list. I bought a couple books, did some google-searching, asked some friends for suggestions and guidance, and ended up reading for about 5 hours today. I signed up for a training site that I thought could help me become a better coach - the time and money investment wasn't even about becoming a better player, I did it with intentions of being able to more efficiently teach the game. In a way, I had a light bulb go off in my head and had a lot of motivation and energy to start a snowball of learning.

After a long day of grinding, I had an Intro session scheduled with a new client at 9pm this evening. For the past several weeks I have been using the same list of Intro Topics for each new client that comes to me for coaching, and it has worked out great and the reviews have been astoundingly positive - but I always knew there was room for improvement. After reading several hours of a couple different books, watching some video content, browsing training websites, coaching my Vegan friend who is here at my house by reviewing his hand histories and spending several hours making a list of all the things I deem necessary to being a pro - I realized that my Intro Topics list needed some work, the format of it and the order all needed to be optimized. So I had 30 minutes to spare between reviewing hand histories with Marcel (my vegan friend) and the 9pm Intro session I had scheduled, and I used that time to alter and optimize the Intro Topics. It's amazing how many small details and seemingly useless bits of information comprise a large edge at a poker table. After playing full-time for nearly 9 years, I have never taken the time to put all my knowledge down on paper. It's an exhausting task that, for well-educated players, takes a lot of time. To give you an idea, after spending about 3 hours thinking and writing down things in a list of no significant order, I feel like I am about 20% of the way done covering everything that I already know, or need to know. The list is very, very long - and I am aiming to put it all into curriculum form for the betterment of me and all my students - again, something I have never attempted before. If my coach did this, it would take him weeks I imagine and the final product would be worth ten's of thousands of dollars - or more than anyone would think it's worth. But a top-level poker education that can earn you six-figures per year with would be worth every penny in a theoretical sense. And that's exactly what I am aiming to do - create a curriculum that represents the foundation to a training program which enables people to earn consistent incomes playing poker and offer valuable insight to health and happiness - all while continuing to learn and grow as both a person and poker player.

That paragraph is too long for my liking, but being short-winded isn't my strong suit. I am going to change directions here and just talk about current affairs in my life for a bit before closing out with some pictures.

First off, my friends, family, girlfriend and dog are all healthy, happy and progressing in their own unique ways. My parents are doing great, as is my sister and her family. My nearly 10 year old dog has never been happier and brings me so much joy that is hard to put into words. My girlfriend continues to make me think about getting married, and that's no easy task. I met her mom for the first time a few days ago when she came to visit. We got to enjoy a few meals together, go to the beach as a group and it was a very pleasant experience. Everything is just going really well and almost too smoothly - where are all the obstacles I am used to facing? I don't know, but I spend very little time thinking about what could potentially go wrong, and focus on what it would be like when, not if, things go right. Oh, I also booked a flight to Texas for my cousin's wedding in about 5 weeks and am beyond excited to see everyone and to be there for her big day. One of the hardest part of 'my job' is being away from the people I love the most.

My poker results recently have been great, and the WSOP went as well as possible for a day-2 bust out. I am proud of the way I played and feel I only made one significant mistake. I ended up getting coolered out, running AK into AA all-in pre-flop and that was that. I am already looking forward to the series next summer and plan to play a lot of events for the first time ever. Online, I continue to crush the SNG's and my win-rate is staying right where I want it to. I am playing 45 and 180-man SNG's as well as a healthy amount of MTT's. Shortly after my $63,00 Sunday Million score, I finished 3rd in the $215 Bounty Builder for nearly $5,000. I am gearing up for a high-volume month in August and have accepted the fact that I simply can't accomplish/learn everything I want and need to while I am playing 40+ hours per week so am sacrificing some grind-time this month to experience growth and acquire a more advanced arsenal not only to player poker with, but to coach with and live life more efficiently in general with. Grinding has always been my priority, but that's sometimes a mistake due to the value of growth out-weighing the dollars gained by playing poker. It takes a light bulb turning on to see things more clearly sometimes, and I have had a bright light turn on inside my brain and consciousness and am more aware than ever of how important the on-going act of progressing is - especially in poker. If you aren't getting ahead, you are undoubtedly falling behind.

Ok the yawns are kicking in and I have to be up in 6.5 hours. I will wrap it up here with a couple recent pictures and update again after I finish creating 'the curriculum' project that I am working diligently on for the next several days (disregarding Sunday). As always, thanks for reading and for the continued support. I wish you all the same happiness and success I am currently experiencing!

                                              The SNG grind since starting The Challenge

                           My roommate and our girlfriends, and their mom. Yes, we are dating sisters.

                                               
                                                           No caption needed, just bliss.

100% Vegan pizza we had in Vegas. 

A well-stocked fridge in the Vegas hotel room, all vegan.

An awkward WSOP Selfie. 

                                         Live poker fuel - Yes, I brought this to the table with me.

#7 - P5's Article, SNG Upswing, WSOP Plans, Vegan Student Moving In

Hey guys. Once again I find myself happy to be updating my blog. It is a satisfying feeling, but also leaves me feeling even hungrier than before all of the recent success. I want MORE. Not more money, not more health, not more stuff....I don't know how to explain it, but I am searching for more good substance to make a part of my life. Friendships have blossomed, health and wealth are both on the upswing, my girlfriend is turning into a productive mini-me and everything is just falling into place ever since I started this blog. And I must admit, it feels REALLY good.

Since my Sunday Million score  I have been back at the SNG grind with a few more MTTs each session, just as planned. I am playing mostly $3r/$8 180 mans, and $7 45 mans. I will play at least 2k games at this level before moving up to the $15 180s. I am anxious for the weekend majors and really like the groove I have fell into since starting this Challenge. I have had great results so far after a very small sample since moving up stakes in the SNG's and am becoming more and more convinced that making $100k/year at SNG's alone is very possible for a top notch player. I think a lot of players will try to copycat the new approach I am taking after they see how much $EV I am soaking up each month.

A lot has happened lately, and even just today. My Sunday Million score combined with the recent Triple Crown and passing of the $3M for lifetime MTT cashes earned me a Feature Article on Pocketfives.com, which in a way is an accomplishment for most poker players including myself. It's such a personal game, we have to wake up and make it happen every day, we cant count on our teammates or anyone to play for us. It's sorta lonely in that regard, so having the support that I have behind me and knowing that you guys are following the action makes me feel like it's sorta a team game. I guess my point is that a little recognition feels good, because no one sees all the dirty behind-the-scenes grinding that goes on. These feelings are also probably one of the driving reasons why I like to teach and coach others, and have players who are sort of like my teammates. It takes the lonely factor out that a lot of players experience. Here is the link to the article:

Pocketfives Article

I just got off the phone and booked hotel rooms for Las Vegas in one week for the WSOP Main Event! This will be my 2nd career WSOP event, and my first was the 2010 Main Event where I made a deepish run into the money - and even scored a little time on the ESPN broadcast .... opening J2os from MP while we were hand-for-hand on the money bubble and getting shoved on by KK - Thanks ESPN, nice moment for me (not). Hoping to best that this year to say the very least. My roommate Lenballs1014 and our girlfriends are going with me. And Rocky, obviously. I am beyond excited and anxious to get there and play. And it will be a super cool time for our girlfriends, who have never been to Vegas before.

Last but not least, I just agreed to terms with a player for a coaching/backing deal and he is moving in as soon as I get back from the WSOP. His flight is already booked. It's a done deal. He is a long-time grinder and has played 100k+ SNG's profitably with tiny variance and more importantly, he is VEGAN!!! He's a really cool guy who has done a lot of travelling and is educated and has a good head on his shoulders. Lenny and I think he will fit right in over here and we are very excited about our new partnership and have big plans for ramping up his win rate and moving him into the same type schedule we play eventually. He is my new project and I am going to nurture the hell out of him and make sure he learns every in and out to crushing SNG's and MTT's for $100k+ per year. And, I am going to go 100% plant-based diet when I return from the WSOP with his help. I am beyond excited about everything going on right now and feel like I am riding a wave of some sort. Things just continue to fall right into place.

Like always, I will close with a SNG update picture and thank you for your continued support, the rails, the love and likes and everything else. It has been a fun ride since getting back to blogging and I am excited to continue on this path of growing, learning and prospering. I truly believe my Sunday Million score, the Pocketfives article, my new vegan protege, the WSOP main event opportunity, my network rapidly growing - I really believe that I attracted it all into my life. Yes, like The Law Of Attraction. One day not very long ago I just decided to make a bunch of moves. The next day, there were new moves to make, new opportunities. It's been like a snow ball ever since, growing more and more complex. Sometimes all you have to do is get started. I have believed in that since before I was 18. I was watching 'The Secret' dvd with bootcampers in 2009. I have had so many bad ideas and have failed over and over. No one cares, just keep grinding.

                                                    The SNG Journey so far...$50k here I come

#6 - Sunday Million FT!, Moving Up Stakes, Week 2 Results/Pics

Hey guys! I am pretty happy to be typing up week 2's results, however I am running on fumes right now as I didn't get finished playing my Sunday session until about midnight... And then proceeded to go out for pizza and a couple beers with some of my best Rosa buds, J-dawg and J-Rich, and didn't get to sleep until about 3am and was up to attend BBZ's coaching session at 6am. So that's 18 hours of poker followed by 3 hours of sleep. Phew!

I got 4th in the Sunday Million on Stars for $62,212 - good for my 2nd biggest career cash. It feels REALLY good. Not just because it was a big score, but because I have been struggling and grinding very hard for 2 years with no big scores and was on a big downswing due to getting crushed at the high stakes games. My win rate has been fine throughout the struggle, but my graph was still headed south. I was 1/4 with a big lead and lost KK to AK for all the chips, but this score still managed to capture back all of my losses and put me at my career-profit peak. $175,000 would have made for a better story, but I am very happy with the result. I ran very well to get to that point and the big bad beat didn't make me lose sight of that. So what now, what about the bankroll challenge? Yeah, good question.

I am going to move up stakes quicker than expected, but still keep the backbone of the challenge in place and continue to grind my way up the stakes systematically. I have played 1500 micro SNG's so far and am running really bad, but have profited about $600 nonetheless. The games are amazingly soft and I doubt the next level will be tough whatsoever. So the plan is to continue playing a lot of SNG's $15 and under and get back to playing quite a few MTTs as well. I do not want to reintroduce a lot of variance just because I had a score. Let's be honest - the Poker God's just rewarded me for grinding hard at low stakes and getting in shape, right guys?! So if I continue on this path of progress then The God's will reward me again, right guys?! Also, I am determined to create a solid curriculum for my students with this method and the value there is hard to measure, but I believe it's significant.

T25 went well again last week, I am still very out of shape cardio wise, but I am getting better each day. I have had several days where I wanted to skip the workout after a long day of poker, but managed to make it happen every day. I will be getting day 1 of week 3 done sometime later today after I get some sleep. We are also all settled into the new house, and decided to not switch grind rooms. There are some upgrades left to do but otherwise we are all set and loving our new surroundings. I am anxious to host my first student here in a couple weeks and really put all of this into motion. I will get some pics up once upgrades are in place. I have been doing a lot of one-on-one coaching with guys for $75/hour the last week, but my interest is mostly to find guys to coach and mentor in return for a percent of their winnings. I have found a few already, but have not started that process yet. It's all still in the developing phase, everything is new right now and i'm being methodical with everything, not rushing anything.

I'll keep it short as usual - attached are some pics from the week. As always, thanks for reading and for all the support I have received recently. You guys rock. I hope some of you see this first picture as motivating. I am motivated by it. I just went through hell to get here. Now I am here and feel like it's likely to only be up from here. Hard work pays off and running bad can't last forever.

I will update after my first few sessions at the higher stake SNG's. TBC.

                                                       Profit graph since turning pro in 2008

                                                             Withered SNG results so far

                 
                                                           The Lobby of The Million

                                             Trimming down nicely before adding muscle

#5 - One Week Results, Week Two Plans, Pics

Hey guys! Man, what a week. I am freakin exhausted. It was a very productive week however and I can look back and be proud of the work I put in and the results I got. But there is plenty of room for improvement, that's for sure.

I will start with poker. I used the first week to sorta experiment different things, such as what games do I want to play, what hours do I want to play, how many tables do I want to play, which HUD setup do I want to use, what time I want to exercise, what to eat and when to eat it, etc. I don't have it all figured out yet, but I do know that 180-man and 45-man tournaments will be my grind for the next few weeks. I have been playing anywhere between 12 and 20 tables at a time, and I think I will aim to average 14 this week. I felt like I was making too many mistakes to justify 20-tabling, but small samples make it hard to tell for sure what my win rate and ROI actually is right now. I will have a good idea where i'm at after 4000~ games played, anything before that and 180-man variance is pretty relevant. So far my win rate is a respectable 10bb/100 after 38,000 hands played. I expect that to rise slightly, but I think 10 per 100 is pretty reasonable for turbo formats. It will also help to know who the regulars are and build decent samples on them in my database, but once that happens I will be moving up stakes though. A good problem to have I suppose. Anyway, I am up nearly $300 at SNG's but took a small loss at Sunday MTTs after buying 28% of a small schedule and mostly bricking. Bankroll is about $1250 now not counting FPPs. I expect to run better this week and have a $2k bankroll after the 2nd week of play. I gotta admit, I am having fun doing this. I thought it would be brutal grinding so low, but I really am enjoying the process.

I also learned that I much prefer a light workout in the morning, and T25 in the afternoon outside with the sun shining - opposed to T25 in the morning before I play. And by light workout in the morning, I mean something very light just to get the blood flowing and fully wake me up, physically and mentally. T25 drains my tank temporarily and I want to enter my poker sessions with full attention and preferably a surplus of energy opposed to a potential fatigue. Also, most poker players who grind long hours are vitamin-D deficient, so doing my 25 minute workout in the sun is a good way to consistently get my daily dose of sun when I am cooped up in the house grinding most of the day. After 1 week I can see visible changes to my body, I am very sore, and I sleep like a baby. My metabolism is going nuts and all I want to do is eat. I had to talk myself into attaching a 1-week results pic because it feels sorta corny, but whatever. I will post a new pic each week, adding to my motivation to stick to my goals and produce results.

The food part has been pretty easy. No meat was not even difficult, but no dairy is a tough one for me. I am doing my best to eat as clean as possible and am making strides towards eliminating all animal products from my diet but it will remain a work in progress. Which reminds me, I failed on the no-alcohol for a week goal. I consumed alcohol on 2 separate occasions, but life rigged it to be that way. First, the NBA finals go to a historic game 7. Who goes to watch a game 7 at a bar with his roommate after a 13-hour Sunday grind and doesn't have a couple cold ones?! Also, I forgot to factor in my roommates girlfriend's birthday on Friday night, and that we were going out to Tijuana for the evening. So I had a couple beers to...ya know....be social. So both occasions = universe's fault, not mine. That's my story and I am sticking to it!

I have been coaching pretty regularly this week as well, an hour here and there for 5 total this week. All the sessions were 'Intro's', not much strategy talk. I am changing the way I approach coaching and feel that an hour intro will make the following hours much more valuable. Here are some of the topics I cover:

HUD's, Holdem Resources, Run It Once, Applications of NLH, BB/100 understanding, Variance, game selection/rake, identifying weak spots and capitalizing, are turbos good?, what is a MDF?, what is edge-passing?, where does ROI come from?, What I am learning to do better right now?, Limping, iso'ing limpers, Who do we want to play against?, Everything needs to be explainable. ICM - when is it important? How to study it., timing tells and game flow, mindset when grinding, how to maximize output and EV, building a network (quality over quantity), preparing for sessions, optimizing your grind's enviroment, what it means to hustle.

That's the exact list I covered in an hour with one of my new students. From there, things make more sense when they watch me play, or listen to me give explanations while reviewing hands. It also sends the clear message that a lot of your win rate is going to come from things you do away from the tables, and that crushing life is actually MORE important than crushing your opponents on the poker tables. I am excited to get my 'Bfizz Boot Camp' operation going again and include a lot more focus on what it takes away from the tables to be a 1%'r. There are hundreds of pro's who would win a lot more money if they mastered life away from the tables. I am one of them, but I am focused on eliminating life leaks and adding value as the days go by - not the other way around which seems to be the natural trend. Of all the top regs and big winners in poker, there are still the best and worst of them. Every edge counts when you are trying to be one of the best, and being healthy is simply a huge edge and grossly underestimated. The 1%'rs don't just crush poker, they crush everything. I don't know where I rank on the theoretical list, but I am determined to be a 1%'r.

This week's goals:

No alcohol
T25 every day
100+ games per day
eat less dairy products
finish reading 'Relentless'
coach at least 5 hours
review 150 shove/fold ICM spots
play at least 100 STT's (single table turbos)

It's 1:45 PM and I still feel like taking a nap, but I have 100+ games to play, T25 still left to do, and I need to read for an hour or so before bed. I have a one on one with my coach at 7am tomorrow morning and after that I will be playing 45/180 mans all day. I am thinking of what I need to do to better prepare myself for tomorrow's session, and spent time last night and most of today doing things to prepare for today's session. I am going to wrap it up here and start loading SNG's, and I will leave you with this great quote and a few pictures from the last week:

*Edit - It's now 5PM and I haven't played a single SNG yet. However, I did make a coaching ad in the twoplustwo coaching marketplace. Here is the link:

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/187/tournament-sng-poker-coach-listings/bfizz11s-mtt-sng-coaching-1615839/

"I don't make the big bucks because I talk. I make the big bucks because I EXECUTE." - Eric Thomas

                                                               The SNG journey so far

                                   Betty's Vegetarian Burger! Double all the veggies. It was amazing.

                                                 
                                      A smoothie every morning, with some variations of course

                                                  Lots of plates that look very similar to this

                                 Friday night in Tijuana, had to get a pic in front of the infamous HK

 My office isn't set up properly yet due to internet complications, but this temporary spot doesn't suck

                                     Not a drastic change, but I am only just getting started.

                                                                  While I play poker....

                                                 
                                                      Our 5 minute breaks from poker :)

#4 - Exercise/Diet/SNG's Update, Pics

Hey guys, going to keep this one short and just update on the weekly goals for the most part.

No alcohol is easy, but at the same time a cold beer sounds good right now. I am crushing the workouts each morning and even doing a lot of push-ups, pull-ups and other various exercises on my 5 minutes breaks during my poker-grind sessions. And by crushing the workouts ..... I mean I am getting destroyed and nearing puke each morning so far. Ready for that to pass to say the least, but went into this fully expecting that so it's just a mental battle each morning so far. I am also off to a nice start in the Bankroll Challenge - so far turning my $1k starting bankroll into $1260 after 360 SNG's played. I haven't been running particularly well and am just amazed at how soft the games are down here at these limits. It's a fun, low-stress grind that I am actually enjoying quite a lot. I have attached a picture of my graph displaying my results so far.

What else.....well, I do indeed crave meat, but have also been researching and learning a lot about Veganism. It's quite intriguing. I have some ethical issues with how the food is produced in most cases, but I also just want to be the healthiest version of myself for my remaining years and everything is pointing to going Vegan being my best bet to attaining the life and health status I desire. So, I have amped it up from no meat, to straight vegan for the last 2 days and I feel great. My energy levels are high and my poop game is on beast mode. My roommate also jumped on board and I am totally siked to have a partner through this life-changing phase I am going through. Now I just have to convince my stubborn girlfriend to join us.

I have had a decent demand for coaching sessions since starting my blog, and actually just finished up an hour long session with a new client I have never worked with before. I feel like it went really well and even I was able to learn from just simply teaching out loud and forcing my brain to explain in detail a lot of things that usually just stay bottled up inside of there. I am in no hurry, but anxious to find my next protege.

My body has reacted very well to the workouts and new diet regimen, and I can already promise you that my 1-week transformation pictures will be relatively unbelievable. Meaning, a lot of you probably won't even believe me. I have good genetics and have always been an athlete, so I shred fat quickly and haven't lost much muscle memory. It's amazing how motivated I am due to making all of this public and having friends, family and even strangers on the rail to see how this all pans out. I appreciate very much all of the support and views and positive feedback I have received so far, so thank you for that everyone.

I know I said I would have house pics up in this post, but it's not going to happen. It's just not a finished product over here yet and I want to wait until it is. However, I do have some other random pictures that I have snapped over the last few days to share with you guys.

Again, thanks for reading and for all the support. If you have any questions poker related, health/exercise related, or anything at all please just message me somewhere. I am happy to help out. Oh, and if you have any advice - I will gladly accept that as well :)

I won't be updating again until Monday, when the 1-week milestone is completed. I will have pictures of the house, my before and after pics from the diet/workouts, and a lot more SNG's played by then and hopefully a $2k bankroll to start throwing in some $7 games as well.

SNG Results so far

My daily grind and view 

Paradise in my back yard with my girl

Smoothie game

#3 - $50k Bankroll Challenge, Hello Exercise Bye-Bye Betty's and Beer, Before/After Pics

Hey guys, it's Sunday evening and I am exhausted. It's been a very busy and somewhat hectic week since beginning the move into the new house but we are finally getting settled and the place is starting to take shape nicely. I will post some pictures of house next week after our grind room is all set up.

After our poker session's finished up today we went out to have a burger. By we, I am referring to my roommate and our two girlfriends. There is a burger joint here in Rosarito called "Betty's Authentic American Hamburgers" and it is truly one of the best burgers I have ever had in my life. Not only did I want to go out in fashion before starting the week of eating no meat tomorrow, but also as a celebratory meal. Celebrating what? Lenny, my roommate, won the $109 100k Sunday Kickoff on PokerStars this morning for nearly $20,000! Congrats to him, it's always cool to be a part of someone else's big win. It also added some timely excitement to my pretty mundane day which was very welcomed. Speaking of my mundane day, check out this Sunday Million hand I played today..... it certainly wasn't a morale booster after a long morning of crappy cards, but I am now even more excited to enter a new phase tomorrow.

Sunday Million Bustout Hand: http://www.boomplayer.com/en/poker-hands/Boom/19540621_E82DB1488B

On another note, I did NOT get any action for my prop bet. However, I am, in a way, happy about this. The reason is because I have changed my mind, and want to do something a little different. The correct way to name it would be a 'bankroll building challenge'. I want to showcase what it takes to go from playing the smallest tournaments online to the biggest tournaments online, documenting the entire process along the way. I am going to call it the "$50k Challenge". I will track things like my win rate at different games, variance, general post-session thoughts, game selection methods, and a lot more crucial information that most players don't consider when trying to build a bankroll or move up stakes. And for what it's worth, I am taking up to $1500 action against on this challenge as well.

Here's how it will work:

I start with $1,000, and the challenge is to get to $50,000 before I leave Mexico for Christmas back home in Texas. Here are the bankroll guidelines I will go by:

$1k-5k BR: $22 and under only

$5k-10k BR: $44 and under only

$10k-20k BR: $55 and under only

$20k-30k BR: $109 and under only

$30k-$50k BR: $320 and under only

I will play the Sunday Million every week, and buy parts of bigger games with whatever my max buy in at that time is, selling the remainder of the buy-in to investors. Because I don't have anyone betting against me yet, I can be pretty loose with the guidelines. But bankroll management and game selection are going to be things I focus a lot on and I plan to avoid making bad decisions/shot taking with the bankroll all the way through this process. I am going to create a how-to for my current and future students, so I will be diligent and will avoid doing things I would not advise my own students to do.

During my poker-playing sessions, I will be doing a lot of coaching for my new students by constantly doing live-sweats so that they can watch me in real-time and I can explain my thought process while I play. I am also considering making some videos so that all my future-students have access to the content as well. I feel this will help keep me better focused during my sessions, as well as provide a great learning vehicle for not only my students, but for me too. I will also probably have a student here in my house pretty soon, and he will get to experience all the action first-hand, as well as play the same games and move up stakes the same way. The skill set and approach needed for each level of buy-in varies significantly. I have extensive experience in all levels of the games, but none more than the $0-22 filter. I expect to have an absolute hay day on the small stake games for a couple weeks while sprinting my way up to $5k+. Game selection will be crucial with a $1k starting roll, but I have a plan to avoid going bust.

Tomorrow is a BIG day. Starting an intense exercise program, giving up meat, and going from chasing the top 100 world-wide rankings while playing high stakes tournaments to playing with a $1k bankroll at the smallest stakes and not even paying attention to rankings. I will also be playing more hours of poker, and completely eliminating alcohol for at least this week. All the pointless beers are adding up in my gut, and I want to get the best results possible. It hasn't really hit me yet, but it soon will. Everything is going to start changing tomorrow. All sorts of good things are going to happen as a result of this $50k challenge and commitment to regular, high intensity exercise. I am ready to be the best version of myself that I can possibly be, who is with me?! Ok sorry, had a moment there.

Weekly Goals:

1. Do T25 and lift weights Monday-Saturday.
2. Don't eat a bite of meat.
3. Don't consume any alcohol.
4. Play 7 days of poker, and at least 600 games.

So here we go, starting a quest to make a methodical $50k profit and get into the best shape of my life before Christmas. I have included a few relevant pictures, in order they are:

The burger I ate today, my $1k starting bankroll for tomorrow morning, my $0-22 lifetime results graph, a picture of me in college, a picture of me 6 years ago, and a picture of me today.

As you can see, I have gotten steadily softer and fatter over the years. I found a mexican girl who loves to cook and I love to eat .... it's not her fault or mine, but we are determined to stop making excuses and get into phenomenal physical shape. I always let my work/poker get in the way of staying in shape, and I am saying goodbye to those days. I also let life get in the way of work, and I plan to make changes to spend my time more productively and maximize my $EV at the poker tables as well. I will get pictures of my new grind-room and my home-gym for the next post. If you have any advice or tips regarding what to eat, what not to eat, best proteins sources disregarding meat, or anything at all, please don't hesitate to shoot me a message or comment below. And please follow me on Facebook, TiltBook and Instagram if you aren't already! Thanks for reading.

#2 - New House, New me!

Sup guys? I am wrapping up a very long and productive day and feel like writing to unwind and organize my brain a bit. We moved into the new house and everything has been a little hectic lately, causing me to take several days off from poker to focus on the other important tasks. Moving is always more work than you expect it to be, speaking from A LOT of experience. Fun stat: I have lived in FOURTEEN different houses since my poker career started many years ago. 14. I am hoping to be settled here in this one for a while.

To go with the new and improved residence, I am also giving my lifestyle an upgrade. I have failed many times in the past when setting out to accomplish long-term goals that require a drastic lifestyle change, so I am going to give myself a better chance to accomplish my goals by making them short-term. Sometimes, all I need is to accomplish SOMETHING to really get me going in the right direction. And while I don't feel I am headed in the wrong direction, I certainly have room for improvement. So, here are 2 week-long goals I will be starting Monday morning (June 13th), the same day I start the low-stakes prop bet. I hope to make both of these last much, much longer than 1 week, but 1 week will be a great starting point.

1. Do T-25 + lift weights every morning before I grind, Monday - Saturday

2. Completely eliminate meat from my diet Monday-Sunday.

I will be using my blog and other instant-update social media sites to track my progress and results of not only the prop bet, but other goals and milestones that I set out to accomplish. If you aren't already, please give me a follow or add on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and TiltBook.

Today was the first day to play any poker in the new house. I played a lot of games and a lot of hours and ran really poor for the first 9-10 of them. Then before I knew it, I was one-tabling the $33 Bounty Builder on PokerStars and ended up 1/9, then 1/3 only to end up busting in 3rd for about $3,600. No matter how big or small, a day saver is always welcomed. And perhaps a good omen, forecasting what is to come in the future here at the new casa.

Rocky is loving all the extra room to roam around, and I love watching him. The girls kitchen is no longer in the same room as my office, I have a pleasant beach view while grinding, and we are surrounded by a 12 foot brick wall. Parking my car in a garage is also a feeling I have not felt in a very long time, and I didn't realize how much I missed it until moving into this place. I think this is going to be a spot where I really blossom and take off in my poker career. That's the idea anyway.

I will keep it short because long blogs suck. Thanks for reading and please wish me luck with T25 and no meat endeavor..... it's not going to be easy or pleasant, but hard work to get desired results usually isn't described that way, right?

#1 - The Start Up

Hey guys, it's been a long while since my last blog entry and I am enjoying the feeling I have as I get going again. I won't get much into what I have been up to, no one cares about that. Let's talk about what's important.

I am chasing two of my passions everyday, which are to compete in poker games and to teach others to compete in poker games. I am living in Rosarito, Mexico, just south of the US border in Southern California. I have a house on the beach and live with my roommate, our two girlfriend's and my nearly ten year-old Pitbull, Rocky.

Since I was a young man, I have always known that I am chasing something bigger than winning a lot of poker profit, and I still haven't figured out exactly what that is, but I am making progress. Without expanding too much on that, I am accepting students and have room available in my house for you guys to come learn here with  me in person, and see how I do things - or just enjoy a poker-vacation on the beach. I am looking for people who share the same mindset and passion's I have to build long-lasting, fruitful friendships and partnerships with. I want to build a network, travel the world, and do all sorts of great things that everyone else wants to do. I'm normal I guess.

Lately, I find myself craving challenge - and more importantly, a little pressure. I perform well under pressure and it's been a while since I felt challenged and pressure at the same time. So, my creative mind told me to step out of my comfort zone and do something to cure my cravings, and I have decided to do a poker-based bankroll challenge. I am going to do this and document it nearly every step of the way, my mind is made up. However, to make it more interesting, I am accepting up to $1k of action against for this. Here is the bet format:

$1k starting bankroll, no reloads allowed, FPP's are in play

I must only play games with a buy-in of $22 or smaller. However, if I win a satty into a bigger event, I am allowed to play the bigger game.

Only games on PokerStars will be considered part of the bet.

I have 2 months to turn $1k into $5k, starting Monday, June 13th and ending August 13th.

That should be pretty clear-cut, but if anyone needs clarification and wants to bet, please reach out to me on Skype or Facebook or Tiltbook or Twitter.

I will be looking forward to the challenge and the process of documenting the 2 months here in my blog, as well as on TiltBook and other various social media vehicles - with or without any prop bets in place. I won't only be posting poker related content, but also other life-related things that are going on with me and around me.

This 2 months of documenting not only my poker grind, but my life, will be the start of something lasting. I am certain my network will grow, my skill set will be upgraded, and many other positive, long-lasting changes will occur as a result of this challenge. I am plenty self-motivated and am setting out to prove something to myself, so by no means need a prop-bet to carry this out. But again, if you want to put your money against me, I will gladly accept the extra pressure :)