Routine

Going to be back in Manchester on Sunday, and from the 1st of June, i m going to start playing more poker and follow a proper rountine everyday. My rountine is going to be as followed:

7:30, get up and shower

8:00, breakfast (I dont have breakfast regularly, i m going to make sure i do and i wont allow myself to play until i had my breakfast)Got to make sure i have my vitamins afterwards too.

8:30, have a walk near my apartments to clear my mind and calm myself down, got to make sure i walk slowly and not rush (again not allowed to play unless this s done)

9:00, start playing, going to stick with short sessions, no longer than an hr each and have 15 mins rest in between (may be 30 mins)

12:00, review hands for the morning, make notes etc

12:45, lunch time

1:45, 15mins walk to clear my mind again

2:00, play poker again, stick with short sessions, short breaks in between

4:30, review hands played in the afternoon and make notes and posts at least 3 a day onto the blog

5:30, hit the gym every Tuesday and Thursday

The rountine is only for Monday to Friday, wkend will be dedicated for studying, watching videos and making notes, doing EV calculations and playing on StoxEV. Will be playing a couple of short sessions if i have time and hit the gym at least once too.

trip report

Sunday: Woke up at 9am to finish packing and getting ready to go to airport etc. Just before we left, manchester airport announced that they ll b shut from 1pm to 7pm due to the volcanic ash and my flight was at 1:45 FML. Hotels were all paid for and non-refundable, gf almost bursted into tears, so i kept trying to tell her its ok while trying to control my taxi driver tilt (the dude just wont stfu!!!) Anyway got to the airport and the airline said we are flying from newcastle instead and they will provide transport which was better than not going at all. After 3hrs of bus journey and another 4 hrs wait at the airport we finally left at 9pm and got there ust after midnight. We got the bus from the airport and then the ferry to the rialto bridge which was near our hotel. Finding the hotel was a pain in the ass, the streets r dark and completely dead which was pretty scary, we finally got to the hotel after walking round for 30 mins. The hotel wasnt anything i expected, but it was very nice and comfy.

Monday: We didn't wake up til mid-day so we missed the breakfast. We headed to the grand canal and had pizzas for lunch, I had a seafood one and my gf had a pepperoni, they were super nice. we didnt actually do much that day, just exploring the town and went on one of those gondola ride which was nice but slight ripoff- 60 euros for 20mins (almost as expensive as poker coaching lol)


didn't do much after the boat ride, just more walking around and an very average dinner where i spaghetti with clams and gf had lasagna. After dinner we went bk to hotel and chilled. I logged on to skype to see if

Tuesday: We managed to get up for breakfast (the only one time) which was pretty nice, we stayed in the hotel and read some books til 1pm. We then went out for lunch where i had this really sick spaghetti with cuttlefish, it looks like shit but taste fucking amazing!!


We went to St Macro square after lunch, visited the museum in the cathedral, the cathedral was pretty cool, its quite amazining how ppl built shit like these without the machineary we use today.

We then went up to the tower near by and took some more photos



Dinner that night was really good, we went to this little restaurant near the hotel. I dont know if it is the Italitan culture or just in Venice, but people have two main courses each for dinner, first course which is usally pasta and second course is usually meat or fish. I really liked having two main courses giving me excuses to try all sort of food without looking like a pig, but it was kinda expesnsive, well compared to UK at least. Theres literally nothing to do past 9pm in Venice, so we just went back to the hotel after dinner

Wednesday: We had more pizzas for lunch lol, and then we took a boat trip to 3 different islands near by. We went to the glass factory first, they had this guy demonstarting which was pretty cool, he made a vase and a horse in like 5 mins, was really impressive. The next two island was kinda really nice, not a lot to do there, so just had a few drinks sit on the grass and chilled. The boat trip finsihed at about 6pm, and thats it for the day really

Thursday: Thursday was probably my best day there, we didnt actually do much, we walked along the coast for fucking ages and found this really nice park, we had a few drinks and just chilled the fuck out there for the whole afternoon. Dinner that night was super sick, had pasta with king prawns for 1st course and then veal shanks for 2nd course, probably the best food i had this yr!!

Friday: pretty much had to go to airport soon we got up, luckily the manchester airport was reopened so didnt have to go to newcastle and get the bus.

Overall, not the most exciting trip, pretty much just walk, read, eat and sleep, but i still really enjoyed it and wd def go bk one day.

Update.

havent updated this for fucking ages, the reason is that i just havent been playing much at. I played just a little over 30k hands since my downswing. i ve been playing well for the most part, i havent really tilted, my thought process at the table is a lot more clear than it used to be, I m no longer auto-piloting etc. I have been setting small goals for each session e.g 3betting like a beast, cbetting - how turn and river change his range etc. This really helps me a lot, it stops me focusing on money and helps me to play the best i can.

So uni s pretty much finished now, I ve handed in all my coursework this week, and all my lectures has finished, now i just need to do my dissertation which i dont have to hand in til september. So from now on I will be start playing a lot more, I am going to play 4hrs a day with 2hrs of reviewing hands a day and post interesting ones here. I am goin set a rountine up like grog did in his blog and follow it religiously.

After hearing so many good poker players go on about how important exercise is etc, i decided to join the gym close by. I havent been to gym for about 5 yrs, pretty much since my knee operation, and omg i m so fucking weak and skinny!! i lost almost 3 stones of muscles and i cant bench shit anymore (was struggling with 50kg lol). Being the weakest guy in the gym really piss me off, so i decided i m goin 2 hit the gym hard and go at least 3 times a week. Right now I weigh just a little over 13st, by September i want to go up to 14.5 stones and bench at least 110kg! prop bet anyone?

Going to Venice on Sunday for a few days with my gf for our 5 yr anniversary, really looking forward to it, going to eat lots of nice food there :)

Martin