Today has been a good day. 9h of grindin' and studyin'. Kept my focus intensely on my path once again, which is the hardest thing during the day, to not give in to distractions.
Happy happy 
PS. - Also concluded that maybe it's best to get a full rest (7+ hrs) at night instead of my usual 6hrs, to be focused on the morning grind.
Month 1, Week 3 Goals
Play
spend 50hrs on poker (31/50)
no hands goal, full quality (shooting 200z)
Got rekd at 200z again. Not gonna shoot for a while. Starting to realize I'm not actually that good. 200z filled with regs who drop from 500z
Focus
avoid all other activities until poker and gym are done
keep ~1h sessions with 10min breaks geared on resting the mind and being present
Study
work on alternating linear/polar 3b ranges IP
work on better defending my linear 3b range
GTO study on marked hands
Record myself playing a sessh
Gym
4x it (will be hard) (3/4)
Keep eating like a king (3+/day & shakes)
Be amazed @ how shredded u are
3 day work week
Actually grinded poker for 3 and a half days. Thursday I got an incall. Friday left for Bucharest spending the weekend there, seeing girls, friends. Enjoying some fabulous timez clubbing, hangin' out, playing some foot tennis. Feeling very fulfilled socially. Realizing I know some cool mofo's.
It gives my ego a high and makes me feel like 'oh look, i'm not just a weird lonely guy living with his parents and playing poker, there are people who actually think I'm cool lol!'.
In a way I feel bad I didn't put the hours in - def not feeling like I deserved such a long break. On the other hand this is why I grind - to be able to enjoy moments like these and create quality memories with people I like. I guess the main lesson is to minimize free time spent on useless shit so you can maximize it on stuff that really matters for you. If you spend time on both, you're gonna grind too little and end up being shit.
It's ok, I'm gonna spend the next two weeks on lockdown to compensate for this cool weekend.
Month 1, Week 4 Goals
Play
spend 50hrs on poker (study + grind)
Focus
avoid all other activities until poker and gym are done
keep ~1h sessions with 10min breaks geared on resting the mind and being present
Study
work on preflop multiway ranges (regs iso fish)
Print out ranges if complete
GTO study on marked hands
Review a sessh of mine
Work on BB defense
Gym
4x it
Keep eating like a king (3+/day & shakes)
Weekly BR Challenge Report
Played Hands: 9.308
Results: -$796
Current BR: $11.266
19 weeks
Garph
Cyaa,
Daniel SoF
A good criteria for being passionate about poker was comparing it to a period of my life where I was really passionate about something else - Lineage2 (a MMORPG) – and trying to bring that into Poker. Basically, every morning I woke up very excited to play, even though I could sleep some more. The game was all that was on my mind most of the time. I played incessantly, hours flew by so fast and when it was time to go to sleep, I couldn’t wait to wake up the next day so I could do it all over!
How can you not get VERY good at something when this is the attitude you bring to the table?
I think you nailed it when you said all them things, I have the love for the game like this. I do however seem to focus on results, but, that is more connected to mental game problems, probably concerning goals being threatened, rather then the money.
Another thing you mentioned, I keep falling into that same trap, playing and not thinking, what did you call it, again quality play? Although there was one thing you said I disagree with, you said that you need to play at least 30k hands per month, I've read that to master something, it usually takes about 10,000 hours, but like you said 10,000 hours of mindlessly playing, is not actually mastering anything.
This is a great blog, I wish you the best of luck with your goals and success.
Peace
Thanks for the good wishes FrozenElf, glad u found my writings useful. Good to hear u have that kind of love for the game, it is def necessary for succeeding in today's games, I think the overwhelming majority of ppl starting out recently / playing micros are sadly going to fail.
Yeah, especially at the micros you should focus on quality aka improving, instead of just mindlessly grinding as many tables as possible. If you want to move up asap, it is obvious you should improve your winrate. You don't improve it by grinding mindlessly.
That said, I think volume is def also important, so it's a delicate balance. Yeah, 30k hands is kinda low now that I think about it. I would think more in hours per day, rather than hands per month. Def better to invest more hours playing less hands, than more hands less hours.
Good luck with your grind!
MJPerry - I hear u are the king of MTTs tho.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NL20k in 20 months Challenge Progress
So today I finally finished my 100k hands at 100z since 1 August.
Finishing the level = 3bb/100 over 100k hands or 60BI for next limit
Level 1. Beat z100 ($10k+ BR) / 1 month (Dec 2015)
Graph
LEVEL 1 Complete
I do not identify with my results. I consider there def has been rungood involved, so quite possible I'm not 5bb/100 winner in z100. Have to put a lot of work in to beat Level 2 tho.
Level 2. Beat z200 ($30k+ BR) / 6 months (Jun 2016)
Finishing the level = 3bb/100 over 100k hands or 60BI for next limit
The second I get famous, I'ma
fuuuck Nyikee Heaton
Been going hard from the start of the week, putting in ~10h these two days. Still keeping pretty focused on my schedule, not engaging in distractions.
I'm out, have to sleep.
Ok, another gif to celebrate LVL 1 victory. After all, this whole year I've been strugglin' at poker. Good to have some nice results after stuff like 8k downswing.
Can't wait till I get Niykee Heaton
Peace!
YO yo, dropping in for a quick update.
New Deal
Yep, entering a new Era. I've enrolled for a Coaching for Profits program. Didn't think I would do something like this anytime soon, but this sick opportunity came up to work with a NL2k, NL5k reg who I respect, so I jumped on it.
It may be a bit -EV short term since I'm gonna give away a consistent part of my 100zoom profit (which feels I'm doing pretty well in), but expecting it to be pretty good long term and aid me to move up limits way faster.
At the moment have some mixed feelings since now I'm kinda committed to this project for the whole year, also have to put in ~70k hands/month (last few months put in 40-50k focusing on improving), so def feeling some pressure whereas the last few years I did everything on my own terms, and I had the peace of mind I can do what I want with my time.
On the other hand I feel this is a healthy amount of pressure and it will actually benefit me. Whereas before I had trouble sacrificing other stuff to put more into poker, now I don't have much of a choice, which is good.
October Review
It was a pretty good month overall, starting to get more and more of my confidence back.
Weekly BR Challenge Report
Played Hands: 11.995
Results: $228
Current BR: $11.494
20 weeks
Past week has been decent, but not very satisfied, I'd give it 7.3/10 overall. Well things r gonna change fo sho lol, at least regarding volume.
Daniel SoF
WFT happened around hand 25k? 
I think it was a good decision to go for the deal, especially if u have a mentor who made the tranformation from beeing an lowstakes grinder to become a HS reg in a really short time.
btw.
wanna see more hot girls and some cats, i prefer both on the same picture 
@cronicu sallll ms 
@Underbluffing that was a very poor 200z shot. cool name btw
oh and
damn it feels good to be a gangsta
Bringing you.. A possibly recurrent section, the Weekly Wisdom - where I compile the best lessons I got from my week. So here we go on a magical trip
Weekly Wisdom (Month 2, Week 1)
If you have a great opportunity, take it seriously.
Think in $/hr. U make $X/hr by playing poker. By studying it, you are increasing that. But how much are you making by browsing insta, fb, youtube, playing silly games? Aren't you actually making other ppl money with that? Are you that rich?
I feel like when I do my shit right I move closer to a life where I'm surrounded by models. When I slip, I move further away from that. These days a girl I know who's a model (had a thing at one point) contacted me on facebook to ask what's up. Letting myself down in terms of crushing life felt like I was deliberately kicking her (and girls like her) away from my life, so there you go on dat motivation.
Starting the coaching deal threw me off my schedule, mind went on auto-mode, no accountability, like 'it's fine dawg, we don't need to work that hard anymore'. Whereas in actuality, that can't be farther from the truth. Have to work way harder actually, to put in the volume AND work on my game, to climb up fast and maximize EV from this.
The alternative is to not work that hard - not fully benefiting from my coaching, not working on improving and climbing limits, just paying a significant % of my winning from NL100 for a long time. Well that seems dumb.
Realized my weekly goals were actually important for keeping me accountable.
I also slipped on engaging in distractions on my phone/interwebz first part of the day, lying to myself like 'I got this, it's fine'. Actually I didn't. Brought my mind to a place where it craved overstimulation and being scattered, obviously impacting the focus I brought to the tables.
At one point during the week I was like fuck it and played a game on my phone for several hours. This could indicate a pattern where I slip, even when I'm doing well. Could be some mind self sabotaging shit, didn't have a close to perfect week in a while (in terms of my own effort).
Playing poker, at one point I was pretty tilted, just keeping getting rekd, couldn't focus. What seemed to help significantly was consciously deciding I'm gonna focus for the next hour and tightening back up to my default ranges while 4tabling zoom.
Done.
Weekly BR Challenge Report
Played Hands: 18.410 (dat volume)
Results: $489
Current BR: $11.983
21 weeks
Now putting in only the part that stays in my BR.
Results are kinda bittersweet, since I tried 200z again, and got rekd bad pretty fast. I hereby declare war on 200zoom. You've trifled with me long enough u fkin bastard, gonna take you down!
^Confirmed
Also, for some strange reason, BrokeSoBroke seems to think he can just show up in the 100zoom streets and just start claiming territory.
So new goals for next week are
9h/day on poker (54total)
play 18k hands
Keep laser focus until 9PM+
Finish up tweaking preflop ranges
keep eating 3x+snacks+shakes
Hit the gym 4x
If u read (or scrolled lol) until here, u get to see the girl of the week
I really like unconventional girls, anything that goes out of the ordinary in a badass way. Most girls nowadays are so boring.
Swag on,
Daniel SoF
Originally posted by SvenBe
dat photoshop of the last pictures - no me gusta!
yep, u can even see curtain being bent in on the hips line ♦
other than that, awesome post, enjoyed reading.
good luck staying motivated!
lol my fantasies have been betrayed, fml
have to make up for misplaying that hand
Really like this pic, she seems pretty cute and also being in possession of a nice ass, hi stakes. Perfect angle.
oh and thanks vuciitis, glad u enjoyed brah
Originally posted by Dai5dop
Another good one ♦
cool blog btw
#subscribed
yeah that one's also good, welcome bro
Taking off with this bangin' track
also pretty suggestive name lol - btw, does anyone here share my taste in music?
Weekly Wisdom (Month 2, Week 2)
I wrote a lot for this section, decided I'm gonna release the different topics throughout the week, since it's too much mindfucking for a single reading session. So here is today's chunk.
Keeping a healthy sleep schedule is key for overall performance in poker - drifting back to old sleeping habits (5-7am bedtime) kills my focus, game, mood etc.
Focus as a skill
Staying focused for me right now = engaging in the most important activities of the day first and getting that done before doing anything else. I realized this is actually a skill I am building day by day, which I think is very important to have success in any area. This way of thinking adds some motivation to the daily struggle of maintaining it.
I never gave myself to poker
A friend of mine jokingly said on skype earlier this week 'yeah I'm writing a book about the sickest 6max grinder of all time', referring to me. That gave me a massive realization: I never aimed for that.
But how can you make it big in something if you don't even aim for the top?
I always justified poker to myself and especially to others whenever they heard what I do for a living and shook their head 'Yeah, don't worry I'm not doing this long-term, it's just to make money to invest in other stuff later'.
Always in my head like something I have to endure in the moment to get to a brighter future. But that 'enduring' quickly becomes torture if it's what you do 80% of your time for a prolonged period. Hell, right now, staying with my parents in my hometown where I know no one, my life only consists of poker, aside from some gym sessions, and sporadically keeping in touch with friends and few girls.
What I'm saying is in order to be happier, I would have to embrace my identity and path as someone who plays poker and actually start enjoying this fucking game, really aiming to be at the top.
Let's keep it real though, hard to blame someone for not aiming very high in poker. I looked at the top pros and quickly became apparent the hard work and sacrifice needed to get there. I didn't want to have no life and become antisocial. Also, take a look around. Online poker is collapsing around us. Tougher games, GTO machines solving poker, pokerstars drastic changes for the worse, all the pro's are saying NL doesn't have much time left. Are microstakes players aware of how minuscule of a chance they have to make it in today's climate? Probably not. How the fuck do I dream of getting to the highest stakes when Pokerstars will basically remove them from next year?
Yeah, you get the point. Hard to get your mind fully engaged in something when it doesn't see a future there.
At the same time, I signed up for a 1year deal. So this issue needs further thought, since I pretty much have to mindfuck myself into going fully at this.
Weekly BR Challenge Report
Played Hands: 20.004
Results: $720
Current BR: $12.703
22 weeks
Reking the BR challenge streetz
Decided I'm gonna grind a lot till the end of the year.
There's a lot of stuff to sort out in my brain. So maybe this week, instead of spending my time on playing phone games, browsing ig, fb, yt, forums, I will use that time to work on these key areas of my life.
Daniel SoF
lol forgot girls in last post #noob
just found this sick track, and the video is even better, lots of beautiful angels
looks like I have a new motivational video 
ok next article I wrote last Sunday.
Slipping
I noticed I usually start the week strong and then start slipping on my schedule in the second part of the week. At times I realize I'm letting myself down and I say fuck it, I don't care - like some kind of self sabotage from my mind. I guess I get it where this comes from 'you're not going anywhere, you don't have a clear path before you, you don't even know if u're gonna have success so why sacrifice some instant gratification for something long term you're not even sure you're gonna get?'. Here's a vid where I go a bit deeper on this, this is the first time I make it public
Knowing is not enough, we must apply.
Daniel SoF
What's good homiesss
first of all, thank you to the person(s?) that are giving my posts thumbs up, it's more rewarding than I thought lol - I feel like someone enjoyed what I posted.
Remember my struggle about dedicating myself fully to poker? It has partially been resolved. I am currently reading John D. Rockefeller aka King of Hustlers' biography, 'Titan'. And I found a passage that I found insightful. Basically he came from a poor family and around the age of 16, he started looking for a job. He was very determined to start earning money as soon as possible and end dependency on his father. He spent from morning till late in the afternoon looking for jobs and getting rejected, everyday for 6 weeks.
His perspective of treating whatever you are currently doing as your own, very serious business really inspired me. So I'm taking this away, treating poker like my business, putting in my full time everyday. It's not about what your doing, it's about your attitude towards it. The way you approach one thing, you will approach everything.
Young Rockefeller is not impressed by your mediocre hustling skills
Weekly BR Challenge Report
Played Hands: 22.799 [PR]
Results: -$782
Current BR: $11.921
23 weeks
Week began with an already usual -6bi 200NL swing. At one point, seems I was down almost $2k. Good thing I only check BR at the end of the week.
Wanna give myself props for putting in all the volume by Sunday. Fucking beasttttt. This week all went very well. Kept focused the whole day. Kept at it even from Thursday onward, when I usually slipped. I felt myself wavering and put myself back on track. Gangster. Oh yeah, the reason why I'm grinding so hard for past weeks is I decided I'm going for 2x SN, which will be very intense, but achievable.
It's actually the first in a long time where I felt like I gave nearly 100%. After so many months of experimentation, I feel I've found my ideal schedule to focus on Poker. I've toyed with factors like sleeping hours, powernaps, types of food for breakfast, implementing breaks, session scheduling, etc. I'm posting a simplified version here, maybe someone will be able to take something from it.
===================================================================================================
Hardcore Poker Schedule aka Full Hustle Mode
Cliffs:
Grind
Gym
Nap
Grind
Grind some more
Sleep, repeat
Sleep 6,5-7,5hrs depending on level of effort of previous day (eg if I push hard in the gym, have to sleep more to recover).
Turn off alarm. First instinct for many of us is to check e-mails/facebook/messages etc. So first thing I'm disabling wifi on my phone and checking none of that. This is key and I've found it sets the tone for the rest of the day. Instead I look at something that gets me focused (like goals, schedule for the day etc) for a couple of minutes, sometimes while eating a fruit (eg. banana, apple) I keep at my bedside.
Spend as little time as possible going through my morning routine (bathroom, breakfast etc). For breakfast, I try to get something consistent that will get me energy but at the same time as simple as possible - I've found that if I eat complex, heavy foods digestion takes a lot of energy and I feel sleepy/unfocused for a while. My most common breakfast is boiled eggs with tomatoes and cheese.
Sit at PC, disable web browsing (except for mixcloud for music, sites for posting hands). I try not to browse forums, news, etc. Jump into working on poker asap. Yes, day is structured so I can get to grinding as fast as possible. If I do these steps right, usually I get the rest of the day right.
Have 2-3 1h sessions with 10min breaks (sometimes a meal mixed in), depending on how tired I feel - this is the main criteria. When I feel I can't play so focused anymore, I go hit the gym. Come back from the gym, make myself a natural gainer shake full of calories (2 raw eggs, peanut butter, coconut oil, protein powder, etc), drink it and take a 40m-80m nap (depending on how tired I feel). This really helps regain focus and quality play for the rest of the day usually.
I wake up, get something to eat fast and go back to grinding. Usually it's around 6-7PM by now. All this time, I still haven't checked phone messages, forums, etc. Rest of the night I keep putting 1h sessions in, and in my breaks I try to relax my mind (clean my room, look out the window, walk around the house). This is very different from overstimulating it with phone stuff, browsing internet etc and the impact on my focus at the tables is very noticeable.
At some point I get another meal. Around 9-10pm, I enable my phone wifi and catch up to the ppl I care about on watsapp, quickly check some notifications, forums etc. Still keep this lowkey. Usually I grind until I hit my 1320VPP/day target or I am too tired to play profitably.
I try to go to sleep as soon as possible. This seems to be a skill in of itself - finding a balance between some relaxation / wasting too much time - ending up going to bed too late. Get a protein shake, meditate (important!), go to bed.
I try to do this 6x week (monday-caturday), on sunday I work on my game, relax, write this stuff for you guys, review my week and try to self-analyze objectively.
Notes
I've found that for me it's best to go to sleep by 2AM; If I surpass 4AM, my mind will usually be blurry the next day and will create negative momentum
during meals I usually talk to my mom (lol) about what's on my mind for some human interaction or read a book. I've found this more efficient than listening to inspirational stuff on youtube - that requires too much self control.
this works for me, I've found structuring my day in 2 big parts with a nap in between, keeps me most fresh at the tables
this is the ideal way my schedule develops, I still slip up often enough
this sort of schedule can get taxing emotionally (bad moods, loneliness, hopelessness) at times, b/c u're living a pretty imbalanced life, so I wouldn't live like this for more than a few months straight
===================================================================================================
Well yeah, usually Sunday I end up sleeping late and having to catch up on Monday #nosurprise
Girl of the week:
Love girls that are really into working out, def on my to do list. #assaholic
Peace,
D a n i e l a k a S h o w o f F o r c e
Sup mate!
Sooo funny to read about your 'struggles', because I find so much of myself in it (I also play Zoom100, so we bump into eachother on a regular basis 
). I also find myself doing all the other stuff all too much (browsing web, watching twitch, playing games, etc), so my volume also hurts because of that.
I love your idea (or actually your fondness of the idea) of treating poker as one's own business. I will try this approach also, because already by thinking about it riht now in that way motivates me to take it more 'seriously'!!
When do u usually start your day? I noticed we differ in that a bit, since I wake up a 7.30am everyday and start my grind around 8.30am.
Anyhow, good job on your mental progress, have been following your blog for a while now and i fins it entertaing and aspiring at the same time!
Oh and btw, I haven't been able to find anyone on a similar level (as said, playing Zoom100, took some z200 shots in the past) to work with, and if you'd want to go through hands, do sweats, or just chat about poker, let me know, I'd love to cooperate (if that even interests you atm, since you are in a profit-sharing deal).
Take care, wish you all the best,
mjq
@MJQ - Added u on community so u can pm me ur skype, we can chat there if you'd like, although I have very little spare time until the end of the year (going for massive volume)
I usually start my day around 10-12AM lately, although I try to fall back to a more decent sleep sched - actually, this is the main reason today's post will be short.
Actually, for me Sundays (aka my day off, where Ideally I am studying, reviewing past week etc) should be a topic in itself. I always end up wasting the first 80% of my day b/c I want to do so many things so I just procrastinate and wander around lol.
Got some J Carver wisdom from the brief time I watched his stream
When at the tables ur not taking the 'deep thinking' decisions u would take otherwise, it's because u lack off the table work - reviewing hands etc., where u exercise that decision making and make it snappier/faster!
Poker 'revelation'
I realized in a lot of spots I just 'bluff and hope he folds this time', disregarding the fact that longterm that bluff will lose money vs his overall range. Expanding my bluffing range without good reasoning. EG this would be a spot to bluff KJo - meh, I'm bluffing KTo as well. Some subtle mental game shit seems to be at the root.
The same goes when I call down too light in some spots, because of how high I am in my range, even though I know I have other (stronger) hands as well.
It's just sloppiness. Lack of precision. When I'm on I am aware of the many bluffs I have available and how easy it is to overbluff, so I give up. Meh, to be honest, I think everyone calls too much anyway, so instead of overbluffing I should focus on underbluffing. It's about self discipline.
During the week, I considered myself above the need to cut out all excess stimulation and paid the price for that, as always. Whenever you do something wrong, you will keep facing the consequences until you adjust. I think this is so in all aspects of life, and how the Universe teaches us universal (duh) principles.
Weekly BR Challenge Report
Played Hands: 23.598 [PR]
Results: -$1.376
Current BR: $10.545
24 weeks
The result of sacrificing quality for quantity starting to show, 4tabling zoom almost all the time, jumped into 200z games once as usual (lol). Also, I got overconfident. Started thinking like 'I'm def crushing these 100z games, don't need to focus that much, ofc I can have distractions going on while I fucking 4 table zoom!' At one point I was 3tabling zoom while chatting with a friend on skype on gym stuff AND being on a video call with my brother. No one is above the process and you will keep getting shut down everytime you think you are. If my friends are reading this, sorry lol.
Daniel SoF
