Diary of a MTT Grinder Wannabe

[Ant040689]

Another 2 hours at the gym and nothing to report really in that I feel much more tired today and I am probably not going to play until this gym work is making me feel fresher. Didn't help I wasted a lot of the day just watching the EPT Live stream, but the fact I got out to the gym is a plus.

I watched a couple of videos on deuces cracked today and yesterday and just realised how much those guys that were commentating, were reliant on their HUD and in the case of one of the guys, 3 other poker programs that helped him by. A lot of their play was nearly exactly what I would have done, up until they were mentioning how they may be re raising certain players light who had a stat to suggest they fold easily to 3 bets from early pos, the guy said his HUD suggested this, he put in a chancy 3 bet with a medium hand and it got through. Depressing to me as I realise the edges I must be missing without having a HUD, but I am going to get that sorted tomorrow.

Although, I was happy that they did mention how much the flow of the game was important, and in the shoving situations they got themselves into, I was often doing the exact same thing. I would imagine being semi-good at turbos means your pre flop game is decent.

But regardless I may be talking complete crap here, I may be currently way off what I could be like after I get the HUD set up, watch strat vids, revise hand histories and use programs to help me revise poker better. What I want to happen is that I find it much easier to make more money, quicker. Rather than finding juicy games as I am now, and just being lazy and playing enough to sort of live quite comfortably. Just a terrible attitude.

Shit's just got real basically, and I am working very hard now to make sure I am doing everything I can to be healthier and be able to make as much money from the game as possible.

On the health front before I hear cries of me not taking things seriously, I am going to the gym 5 times a week for about 90 mins each day on average. So with the exercise sorted I am easing slowly into changing my eating habits. The final frontier if you will, as there is no way I can hack a complete healthier change into that straight away. It would just make me not even want to go to the Gym such is my probably addiction to crap foods. So I am eating less crap, but still having that bit of crap, as tbh if I keep up with the amount of exercise I do daily I will have to limit it, or I would be barfing.

With the exercise of which today I murdered, I was on the cross trainer for a total of 70 mins going at a decent pace burning 750 calories, and then spent 40 mins blasting my leg muscles. Have problems with being so fat my knees were being strained under the pressure of the considerable torso above so my logic is make those as big as possible to ease the pain. Will be doing dumbells for my torso area as well of course, but I will be mainly smashing my legs to bits.

Just for the record, probably said this before, but I am at least 6 stone over weight, probably no more than 7 though. Not quite sure what my ideal weight is, is the problem, but I will worry about that much much closer to the time.

My thinking is if I look to lose 2 lbs a week, by around Xmas I will be at my ideal weight, and as a present to myself I don't think any would be bigger than being slender. Means I can play out on pitch in football rather than be stuck in goal, and I will without doubt be pushing for semi pro football, probably as a keeper as I have all my experience there basically, but I will have a bash in midfield as I was always a good player but just pretty much too fat. But I won't be bringing that up again until Xmas probably, as I would rather report on progress of me going to trials and so forth than me just saying I will or talking about it too much. So that goal has been stated and I will be going for it.

I will be 24 by then without any previous adult experience of proper standard football, so may well be laughed away, but would hope I have the ability to make them rethink. Always think, generally, I just have been stopped by my weight. As when I was 17 I was playing in the youth team of a semi pro outfit and playing very well in goal, I was also ripped and in the best shape of my life, up until I broke my leg that is, and I put on that Terry Weight and dropped out of the team and basically haven't played seriously since. So it is sort of like one of those what ifs, but if I give it a crack of the whip at the start of the next calendar year, whatever happens, I will be happy that I went for it, while still relatively young.

Have the problem with my lower back too though at the moment and I am not sure how it is going to hold up, but the hope is that with the weight off it won't give me any problems, but we will see. At the moment it is, but I am putting that down to hitting the gym as hard as I have with no proper work before that in about 6 months.

So the plan is to have the HUD set up before the grind on Sunday, and to have watched a few more videos by then, and to iron out any problems I may have getting used to the HUD. Hopefully it just gives me more confidence to try more plays that I hadn't previously as I was cold on how the oppo plays. Hopefully it makes my game as expansive as it can be and it really opens me up to abuse everyone at the table as much as possible. From that it does sound like I am going to turn into a bit of a spewtard at first but fuck it, eventually I will probably settle into my own and have an ever better game than before.

[Ant040689]

Old habits die hard on the HUD front but managed to have a very good run with the cards with just the change in mentality I am slowly let seep in, by going to the gym daily and treating myself better, and treating the grind more seriously. Noticed my concentration has improved and I can clearly see what lies before me if i get fully fit, and that is a much better grasp of online grinding, something I may never have fully experienced. Grinding healthy that is. Is it underestimated how much of a negative effect being unhealthy and a MTT grinder online has on your abilities and results? Well I am going to see progressively until Christmas, when I should be at my ideal weight. Obv I could run hugely bad until then, but if I know I am in more control and playing progressively more splendidly, then that is all i need to know.

Have lost a stone already and it's 5 more to go. Know it is easier at the start and its like a drop in the ocean with all the easy to lose water weight, but i suppose its encouragement to take on to the harder weight loss, and shows i am on the right track.

My mood has got a lot better. Like I would grind, say 3 weeks ago, online, under a cloud of apathy and just going through the motions, I guess I would be playing profitably but my heart wasn't in it as much as it is now because of the biological benefits to regular exercise. I am buzzing so much more now with playing and it is great.

The changeover to limiting my intake of foods has actually been quite easy, but I do stress that its only so far, as going to the gym has limited my appetite in that I feel like I am only eating what I need to. That may be psychological but its the way I should have been eating for a long time and for the rest of my life! If you lay slothful/inactive then eating can be something you do as a form of entertainment rather than to provide your nutrients and over years now I have sure got my worth of over excitement with bad food and overeating!

That is sort of on the forefront of my mind now is the weightloss and I am just going to keep at it.

On the HUD front, i just keep putting it off. The fact I have been doing so well recently without it doesn't help.

I am probably going to play the 888 superstack £165 freezeout next week at the Cromwell Mint, and I am going to probably be playing one of the day 1's of the £333 Westernmania, which are going to be held over 7 days with a huge GTD. So smallish shots from my own back live and primarily sticking to the grind online.

Oh and on Sunday I scored a goal from between 82-112 yards out, from the edge of my own penalty area, as a keeper, dropkicking it the length of the pitch, it took one bounce and sailed over the on rushing goalkeeper. Doubt it will happen again and is down already as one of my favourite memories!

[VBlue]

Hi Ant.  I just come across your diary properly today.

Would like to read from the start and will try and find time to do so over the next week or two.  Can you provide any good cliffs or pointers to some stuff.

I'm learning MTTs from the $1-$5 games after runnig hot for a short while and then not so hot and playing some bad stuff.  Am now stripping my game and taking on coaching, hand anaylsis, mental game work, and running my own diary too.

I'm thinking this might be a really good learning resource for me.

[Ant040689]

Hi Ant.  I just come across your diary properly today.

Would like to read from the start and will try and find time to do so over the next week or two.  Can you provide any good cliffs or pointers to some stuff.

I'm learning MTTs from the $1-$5 games after runnig hot for a short while and then not so hot and playing some bad stuff.  Am now stripping my game and taking on coaching, hand anaylsis, mental game work, and running my own diary too.

I'm thinking this might be a really good learning resource for me.

It's not worth your time to start from the beginning really! It is repetitive waffle for the most part which I am trying to change.

Pointers would be to play the tourns that you enjoy and feel like you have a nice edge over. With a small br myself I could play games a lot softer from around 2008 and it was a lot easier than it is now. I actually played 6 max double your monies tenner games from like a 200 pounds roll, but I was winning a lot in them, then had a bink I think with the profits of that in an MTT and haven't been close to complete busto since! But have also not stayed at a really nice and comfortable roll since either as whenever I have got huge I play in the higher stakes which are harder and ridden with more variance, not felt as comfortable, not enjoyed it as I should and tilted hard. I should have used a healthier lifestyle to feel better about the bigger swings as I think I could be more comfortable in the higher stakes if I changed my stress levels in those games.

I know in my height I was laying out 4k-5k a night, on a midweek day even, rising to probably 6-7k on a sunday, probably having an edge in each game if I played them singularly, but knowing how much money was on the line, shutting down a little from the stress and playing awfully. This is something I am getting a much better hang of. I think I have been a good reader of most games I have entered into (always avoided the rele tough tourns online) but my downfall has been playing too many tables at a time and not allowing myself the comfort of complete control.

So make sure you feel comfortable, can't stress that enough, would be my biggest advice and operate good brm to actually let yourself develop as a player without any nagging thoughts in your head to stop you from playing properly.

 I couldn't tell you what games to play really, but solid advice probably would be to play as many small stakes tourns that aren't on pokerstars just for that added punter value, but imagine at those stakes you should be able to find an edge anywhere.

What are you trying to get out from the game? An eventual living? You taking money continuously out of the poker roll?

With this blog I think your best bet would be to just type in any questions you have about ure game at all and I will answer them to help you out as much as I can. Literally any question is fine, do not be afraid sir, but also do know I am nowhere near the cleverest source of MTT advice on this forum, compared to most of these sickos, I am second/third/fourth rate.

[Ant040689]

Just dabbled a little bit in ure blog vn, going to read the lot next time I am on here. Need to improve my reading across all the blogs really but I will start with yours, best of luck in the games!

[MC]

Thanks for donating mate, muchly appreciated.

Hope poker isn't treating you too badly currently!

[Ant040689]

Thanks for donating mate, muchly appreciated.

Hope poker isn't treating you too badly currently!

No problem James.

Its not going bad at all, but reading through some of my previous posts on here, I am basically going to let this diary come to an end and spend the amount of time I would writing in this on much more better things to do! And talk about Palace in the sport section of the site instead, tis a vice of mine. So changing from talking crap about myself to obsessing about them.

Hope you crush as well this year or better, as you did last btw.