Dancing with the Old Lady, the Journey continues...

Thank you for detailed response! To me there are two key considerations: compassion and cultural awareness. Vipassana is certainly conducive to and generative of compassion and I guess cultural awareness grows from immersion in the culture itself as well as the reflective ability, and willingness, to step outside one's own sphere. Appears to me you're in position where this is already happening, given how much time you've spent in Sth America and travelling in general, where you've experienced a little of what it means to "sleep rough".

Another thought that came to mind, after hearing your description of serving at the under-resourced Vipassana centre in Peru, was how different it is from poker: it ain't zero-sum that's for sure. Aside from providing the basics of food and shelter, it is about creating an environment where meditation is the primary goal: very much a positive-sum game (although the wear and tear is something to consider, the fatigue and stress that emerges when trying to keep the metaphorical ship from sinking).

I wish you all the best, particularly as I believe any charitable impulse should be encouraged, keeping in mind the perceived cynicism that often hovers around these discussions (notably among poker players who often forgot that "zero-sum" decision-making isn't always the best way to approach life) . I also respect the fact that you appear to be taking a long-term view of the endeavour.

Punching in the Face

I am just coming back from my Muay Thai and my (somewhat) advanced middle-aged body is hurting af 😮:shocked::p. Primero, this course is 90 minutes (and bi-weekly), as opposed to the previous one that was a mere 50 minutes. Segundo, it is much more advanced. Think fighters stemming from poorer, and thus tougher, neighbourhoods. Several of them being pro fighters (even a girl!!!). On top of the teacher being experienced, demanding and attentive. Tercero, because of the longevity of every course, we focus more on unpopular techniques like clinching, changing postures/defenses to southpaw and, of course, more sparring!!! I feel that I will be exclusively training in this gym moving forward. At least until my body that, as a reminder, has already partaken in 49 Revolutions around the sun - and some… -, holds up…

If not, life is pretty darn good. Like in all areas yo ♥ In the past, when things were going too good, a (anxious) part of me was (anxiously) anticipating that shyt would hit the fan eventually…. But not this time yo Of course, life is full of unforeseen obstacles and bad variance is always ready to strike, right, but I don’t know, it seems that I am presently operating fluidly along some sort of karmic flow…

And because that online has being going seemingly, with me crushing somewhat easily midstakes (100-200) NLHE and PLO, along with selectively hopping in 1-2k NLHE games and beating them to noticeable success, a (superstitious?) part of me believes that I will have similar success on the live MTT felts in both Brazil (BIs fluctuating in between 300-4k) and Montreal (the 5k ME has the biggest guarantee in CAD history with a whopping 10 million guarantee yo 😃:p😉!!!).

I am presently in Brazil with C, chilling for a few days. Tournaments will be debuting on April 8 ; we got this yo

Made it to Day2 in the 350$ Warm Up ; it was an EXTREMELY soft field, obviously, with a single pro showed up at my table - well, technically there were some other pros at my table, but so fracking bad, that I will just discard them as bad regs... - and sat on my direct left (I busted him within 2 levels yo ).

Am very happy with my play, the gran majority of my bluffs got through - and even bluff-catched 3 streets in a 3bet pot with Q♣Q♠ on A♥xx x♥ x♥ 😆😃), but did fail to reraise bluff a triple donk bet vs 2 when my spidey senses were tickling af, but opted not to do so vs 2 villains (but was shown the bluff!!!).

A good start to the series, even if it is in my smallest (by far) BI ; we got this yo

KSOP Day 2

Not much to report outside of a min-cash (with a couple of ladders). Tomorrow will be a 800$ Deep Stack and if I bust early, I will probably just chill in a bar watching UFC 327, as the interesting MTTs really don't debut until Sunday with the 1k Progressive KO.

How (I didn't) get away with Murder Hand of the Day : After it is folded to me ITM just after the bubble bursted in the SB, I limp with K♣5♠ vs a very aggro (unbalanced) young pro, planning to call a raise, obviously. Villain checks back.

Flop (3bbs) : 9♣3♠4♦

Even though I have obvious showdown value (villain would have raised any Ax), I opt to bet 1bbs, wanting to clear out any equity villain has. Villain calls. Disclaimer : yes I know I bet too frequently in limped pots and goes against what the solver says, but whatever!!! :p🙄

Turn (5bbs) : 9♣3♠4♦ 6♠

I was about to check-decide but when I turn the OE, I decide to bomb it, trying to fold out any sticky pair with gutshot type of hand... I bet 4.5bbs, villain tanks-calls.

River (14bbs) : 9♣3♠4♦ 6♠ 6♣

I was planning on value shoving a pot size all-in bet with any 2, 7 or K hitting, but when the 2nd highest card pairs up and thus unlikely to hit villain after I potted turn and villain tank-shoves, I snap-call his extremely polarized range (that is, as a reminder, excluded of any Ax) only to see the lol bad news : 64 for the FH 🙄:(. GG me 😉

Peace y'all

I misquoted my hand : I completely unblocked villain's bluffs (78 and ♠s), and thus did not hold the 5♠, so it was the 5 of another suit. I also fathom he was going to float flop with almost all of his range in order to steal turn, so when I potted turn and he called, I naturally put him on either top pair (which he never has after going all-in on the river) or a nutted draw.

Day 4 of KSOP : Day Off

I chose not to show up at the Expo Centre today, as the only appealing tourney, a 700$ DS, did not offer a guarantee, which, alas, after yesterday's absence of any players after I late regged 80 minutes a 1k 6max, is not a good foreshadow. So online it was going to be! And online it was, I was up 5.5k in just one hour, before eventually finishing +5k in 3h yo, rendering the low MTT BIs of the past few days to the (insignificant?) background... I mean I totally get where I am coming from choosing to play the softer fields of 350-1k events this week and whatnot, and of course the 1.3k ME holds the most value (as does the 3k HR), but I wish those figures would be five fold as to make better use of my time - I literally just spent 2 days/12h grinding a 350$ tournament for a lol 550$ score (when I get those swings within literally 5 minutes online (and a minute, when playing 1k or 2k NLHE!!!)). Anyhow, I will give it more thought on how to approach more optimally live MTTs moving forward...

Tomorrow is an 800$ PKO.

We got this yo

Day 5 of KSOP : Whiffing at an old age!?!

So my AA ran into QTo for 1.6 stacks AIPF, thus busting the PKO 800$ before jumping into the... the 500$ Seniors :shocked:😮🙄 Yup, the lol threshold was 48 years old+ and even though I caught myself thinking "holy ****, here I am at a fracking senior table, meanwhile I sparr weekly vs 20 and 30 something years old and against whom I usually dominate 🙂😃". But, alas, my AK ran into A9o AIPF 😊

Back it tomorrow for day 1B of the 800$ PKO

We got this yo

Day 7 of KSOP : Main Event

Fired my first bullet in the ME and... I got through to day2 with 28% of the players remaining (when I expected to fire up to 4 bullets ) with 2.25 stacks But here's the thing : I should have 3-4x this, I have literally - like in literally... 😉 - played the best poker I have in my life and it's not even close!!! In a 1.3k event 🙄 Think spidey senses dwindling af But much more than this - and, tbh, pertaining to a Spiritual Realm -, I was strategically doing stuff that I HAD NEVER FRACKING DONE BEFORE!!! To the extent that I thought of my buddy from Montreal, that has been crushing MTTs in the past couple of years to the tune of lower 7 digits and I was there "darn, this is what he has been doing ".. I not only understood what it meant to be playing a level above, but I was fracking vibrating in the zone, snap bluff-catching like a mama-fracker to a double barrel with K high, triple value betting light to amazing success, and just not fearing any lines, even if it meant that being balanced in certain spots meant that I would have to go in the tank for a few minutes after villain double barrelled vs me on a 4 str8 middling board in a 3bet pot and that I would successfully call yo

Anyhow, variance was still a bitch, but I have made it to day 2 with 28% of the field left ; we got this yo

Peace

Day 8 of KSOP : Live Coverage

Going back to the Mystery Bounty day2 on the bubble with 21bbs ; was live for 6h over here : https://www.youtube.com/live/pXHyBmGs0ss

I still need to meditate + shower and only got 6h until the alarm goes off... Peace out y'all ♥

KSOP Final : Notepad Style

T-I-L-T 😡😡:(. Think despite having 4 cashes, a couple of small ladders and a deep run in my highest BI BI 36/746, and yet still coming out 4k in the red, imagine dat :shocked:😮 But anyhow, details below in the Notepad :

- So how did I end up so much in the deficit despite firing just 1 bullet in the Main, being 6h on the live stream and making it to day3 of the ME!?!?! Think 20% rake and payouts debuting at a mere 1.36 BI in the Main, ffs 😡😡😡

- So I thus went from "I will be spending lots of time in Brazil, henceforth coming yearly and thus wanting to learn Portuguese", to I don't know if I will be back....

- And speaking of picking up a new language : I was thoroughly excited about the prospect, especially that the process was going to consist of a mere 1h weekly of intense studying, while the rest was going to be complimented with some passive viewing of movies/tv shows with Portuguese subtitles. I guess that I still have a small time slot open in my schedule to include a new (intermediate level) academic study, so I will give it some thought... The upside of Portuguese though, is that it is so damn close (with Italian) to Spanish, so the whole ordeal was not going to be as mentally costly as learning Spanish and English were...

- As far as deception goes, I feel that the results were <<<<<<< negatively correlated to my A+++ game play, which just added to my overall disillusionment :(. The last time that I felt this way, was during my 2 weeks stint at the Aussie Millions in the year 2000 (where I broke even by cashing in the ME + one ladder up).

- Poker can be such a cruel game and it was full display yesterday, during day3 of the Main, when I (correctly) chose to not take certain (extremely close) spots twice, when I would of ended up more than triple/doubling up my stack in each spot, but ended up taken a clearly more +EV spot AQ < KQ which, alas, obviously failed to hold up. The same happened in the Mystery Bounty when, after capitalizing on 2 bounties, I opted not to take two spots for 2 + 3 eliminations in situations where the rest of the table (was incorrectly) taken them, but would of ended up binking them :(:(:(

- As far as future events goes, I will not be going to Vegas this year and just have some monthly events at the Playground planned out, along with the WSOPC 5k 10 million guaranteed. C will be in Quebec at that time, so we plan on renting out an AirBnB in Montreal for a week or so during that series (where I will be focusing at the most on 2-3 MTTs).

- The positive note is that if I maintain my level of play from the past 2 weeks in other upcoming series, it is just a matter of time before a solid score happens 😃: We got this yo

Back to C, microdosing Aya and Muay Thai tomorrow yo ♥

Do you play these events 100% on your own or do you sell/swap?

Variance live feels more brutal when you can't just reg something else right away. Also live feels more 'epic' so you'll always remember the narrative of the hand/tourney, whereas online is just one more click, flip, 70/30, whatever. It shouldn't be different and we should just play for chips but well, we are humans so of course it stings more to bust a live streamed tourney than a random sunday $100 on your website of choice.

I'll be in Lima sometime around october-november, would be great to link up if you're around.

Best of luck in the upcoming series and in life in general!

100% of myself. I rarely swap (and did not in this series).

Oh yeah! Since I rarely play MTTs online neither, the variance hits me hard indeed!!! The accumulated nasty variance in HIGH equity spots as well (am 0/4 in 6 digit situations) is just seemingly sinking its teether deeper... :p

Great friend ; I should be back in Lima in early November from a 4 month Quebec stint

Thx bro and much love ♥

The Unbearable Heaviness of da Swings

Disaster hit on/off the felt last week, when not only did the Poker Gods stick out their (divine) tongue at me in dat ininteligible humour of theirs, but they had to rub it in in multiple ways, sigh and a thousand times sigh!!! The variance on the felt disgraceful af (-13k in 12h), but so was my sports betting (-9k) - f**k the first round of the NBA 🙄 The good news is that I made back 6.3k on the felt in the past 24h yo

There is a small tournament in Lima coming up at the end of month ; nothing to write home about, a simple 500$ tourney, but with 3 starting flights and a 40k guarantee for first ; for a country within which poker is an afterthought, I am pretty happy on the prospect of not having to travel/cover expenses for this event

If not, I am just getting back into the gist of my Peruvian routine after being in Brazil for 3 weeks. I feel that I was slow to get back into the swing of things... Not paying much attention while grinding online and thus letting myself get distracted by the art of multitasking content... 😊. I also failed to go to my Muay Thai last week and just went to the gym once. Thankfully though, this week I have largely compensated by being active in the past 4 days (3kms of running with C and then gym-gym-Muay Thai yo ). I also volunteered at the Vipassana and am back in the cash NLHE lab yo! And yes, it feels amazing to be back in the swing of things with studying, ample hours grinding, Muay Thai, gym and running down my list of errands yo 😀

Be well all ♥

The Cage

I am stubborn. Stubborn af! I think that one doesn't become a poker pro without jamming their head repeatedly against the trial-by-error wall! Nor travel the world as a hippie-nomadic-backpacker-hitchhiker without an implacable inner drive. So when I initially started training in MMA at the advanced age of 45, I told myself... no : I imposed upon myself with a sense of urgency, that I needed to train for a minimum of 2 years, no matter what!!!

Sidenote : The Asian fellow on the Only Friends poker podcast that had trained for 5 years in Jiu Jitsu, stated that after 2 years of an average of 5h weekly training, a practicioner of Martial Arts becomes an 80% favourite vs a random fellow in a street fight. Of course, this was coming from a pure estimation, but given his analytical mind, it did hit home for me

During my first year, I trained for 3h weekly : two at my MMA dojo and 2 x 30 minutes sessions at home. It was below the above mentioned 5h weekly threshold, but given my extremely high discipline levels and the fact that I put my ♥ and soul into my training, I noticed that I was advancing quite fast (compared to my peers) and thus very content with my evolution.

My motivation dropped, alas, quite significantly during my 2nd year and I hence had to really push myself to go to the dojo. Training at home (on a boxing bag, with weights, pushups and abdominals) has always been easier for me, as opposed to the act of stepping out and engaging the outside world/into the dojo for a (yikes!) 2h training - no less 😮:shocked: - and (potential) sparring!!! I did feel disappointed with my overall performance, but nonetheless kept at it and things got WAY easier when I left Buenos Aires and in the process decided to leave behind the Jiu Jitsu part of MMA - rolling around with sweaty guys on the floor was never really my thing... 😉 - as to focus on the Muay Thai and (to a lesser extent) boxing elements of it yo

During my 3rd year, my training took a substantial leap forward : I increased my drilling to 5h weekly. Two months were also spent with the private tutelage of a Muay Thai coach in Lima (which obviously propelled my practice exponentially), combined with the schooling from a different teacher/approach in Canada yo

My 4th year has been much of the same, albeit I felt the urge to escape the richer (and softer) courses from the touristic neighbourhood of Miraflores, for a more ghettoish/hardened students and classes of San Miguel (bordering Callao) ; but something was missing there as well, especially when I found myself to be top 2 in terms of talent/sparring... So I headed out to Lince (on the outskirts of La Victoria AKA La Tierra de Nadie (Land of No One/No Man's Land), and boy did I find my place!!!

- Multiple fighters that fight/compete regularly : Check!

- Peeps from the barrio/ghetto that go out of their way to punch/elbow/knee/kick the (unique) foreigner in the face : Check-Jab-Uppercut!!!

- A teacher that is extremely demanding, highly qualified, compassionate and does not shy away from the less popular (clinching!) exercises : Checkeroo yo 😆😃

Anyhow, to come back to the point I wanted to make : I despise losing. I F**king hate it! Of course, I handle the poker variance like a pro and with stoism in public, but despise being NOTICEABLY a more advanced fighter then my 4 years experience warrants - to the extent that I outsparred a 20 something fighter (and thus in his physical peak) that also had 4 years experience as if it was kindergarten yo 😃🙄 -, I do not accept to lose a sparring session vs the 3 gangsta wanna be fellows that clearly take pleasure in striking outlandishly the (rich!) foreigner in pad/partner exercises 😡😡😡 Thankfully, I have out-sparred all 3 of them previously. But the thing is, two of them got back to me when my cardio started failing later in a (90 minute) class... - So anyhow, my last month in Lima/training will be spent outclassing those 2 fracking boneheads, even if I end up huffing and puffing and crashing to the mats!!! Getting them back for all those unwarranted knees to the stomach during simple - and supposedly lenient - exercises. For that nasty elbow to the face.

I am 49 and do not have much time left training/sparring as hard as this. My body hurts. I come back home with guaranteed pain after each class. Wake up with bodily pains pretty much every morning. And I do not expect a 25-35 years old anger-fuelled fellow from the barrio to have foresight/empathy for the physical cost of training/sparring that an almost 50 years old foreigner suffers from, but I do take a lot of pleasure in clearly dominating a FIERCE sparring session when I get 100% of my opponent's anger, land distinct jabs/hooks/kicks and manage to discern villain's striking patterns - as I have done so professionally in poker, as most peeps are prey to 5-6 (striking or betting) patterns, as human nature dictates them to do so 😉 - to a successful and (clearly) dominating outcome yo

Be well all ♥

The Show Must Go On : An Update (Notepad Style)

Hey folks, what's up! I am about to head back to Quebec for a 4 months stint, but beforehand, a quick review on the goals accomplished over the past year and where we go from here :

Spirituality : C and I have been microdosing Ayahuasca for the past 4 months+. And while I have repeatedly stated ITT how I immensely trust the divinity of The Plant, it nonetheless cannot be overstated to what extent it has tremendously changed C's life ♥ I mean, she had no previous experience smoking weed, so hence zilch experiences with plants/psychedelics. And sure she has done a Vipassana retreat (and has a Catholic faith), but outside of this, the Spiritual Realm remains newish to her. But lo and behold : The Plant is now guiding her miraculously through the meanders of this bottom world yo ♥ But anyhow, more concretely, what lies ahead for us is : to continue microdosing when C gets to Quebec in a month preferably Ayahuasca (if not Mushrooms), attend a 3 day Vipassana retreat in September, a 10 day retreat (just me) in October and a Full-on-intense-af Ayahuasca ceremony in Cusco for the New Year yo

Martial Arts : if you folks remember in a previous post, I had the goal of dominating specifically 3 fracking douche bags in a sparring match :

2 of these have been fulfilled, but I could not get to the third one as, alas, I have been afflicted with a cold over the past couple of weeks which has brought my classes to a halt, given how my energy levels are easily negatively affected at such an advanced age. Nevertheless, I have to give myself a solid 8.8/10 for my past 6 months of training that has seen me square off against some mighty feisty fighters yo As far as the next 4 months in Canada goes, I will mainly be training at home with the help of my punching bags and accompanying C to the gym ; I might train boxing for a month though (more accessible than Muay Thai and closer (20 minutes driving) to my rural house)).

Poker : We had hit a nasty downswing a couple of months ago but came back (up)swinging in the tune of 40k yo in the online streets. Sports betting has also been going solid (hit on a 17k San Antonio bet), but a lot of it will be determined by the outcome of Holloway-McGregor (I got 12k riding on the former). Also, I got a couple of tournament series coming up : a smaller one at the end of July (a 2.5k and 1k MTT) and then in August the WSOPC super circuit with 10 a million guaranteed in the 5k ME.

Life : The core of my outward focus in La Belle Province, will be dedicated to working on my house. Getting the roof fix. Getting to all the small indoor issues that need attention. Painting. Cleaning. And ultimately getting ready for renting it out (it is close (9kms) to a ski hill). C will be helping out. And of course, all of this will be done in between grinding hours and a nightly bonfire and daily dips into the lake yo ♥

Peace y'all

Flying Home

At the airport waiting for my Montreal flight. C has also received her CAD visa after being denied last year ; she will be joining me in 3 weeks ♥ She already gets along absolutely formidably well with my folks and is planning a ton of activities with my sisters, so it will be a hell of a fun time, me thinks, and will also permit me to get away for 3-6 days for the WSOP Super Circuit 5k 10mil guaranteed and 6k PLO yo

The gist of our stay will be working/renovating my recently purchased house (with bonfires in the evening and canoeing on the lake in the daytime yo) and family time. We will be visiting certain destinations of course, most notably Montreal, Quebec City, Ottawa, Niagara Falls and her sister in Madison USA.

I will be solely training at home (got a couple of boxing bags, weights etc.) and in a gym with C. No Muay Thai courses for the next 4 months though, as I will be exercising with C.

As far as looking back at this year's stay in Lima, I would rate it a very solid 8.8/10 in terms of my relationship, volunteering, training, poker and advancing life projects goes ; the main criticism would be that I was a bit lazy lately in terms of training and volunteering. It did not help that I was sick for a couple of weeks and that I got into a very feisty sparring altercation with a younger fellow, but the gist of it was just a lack of motivation/pushing myself. So note to self moving forward : as pretty much is the case in every thing worth its time in life, it demands a great deed of dedication/effort levels.

Peace

Can't wait to hear about the renovations at your new place by the lake. Wonder whether you'll be feeling like a local back in Canada or more of dual- (e.g worldly) citizen?