The Normal Day
In the near future, I want to start video blogging. I’ve seen a few other guys do it and it seems more fun, interactive, and would be a nice change of pace from all those big blocks of text I end up posting. There’s a phrase in the internet community known as tl;dr which means “Too long, didn’t read” but no such acronym exists when it comes to watching videos. Yet.
Unfortunately, I’m a technology fish. Barely know how to turn on my own computer.
So, umm, yeah this might take a bit longer than I expected. However, I had asked my short list of Twitter/Tiltbook followers if they had any questions they’d like me to answer, and I’m happy to report that I heard back from quite a few people. To be completely honest I was afraid that I’d receive no response whatsoever and I’d interpret that as ‘No one gives a shit.’ And while the conclusion still might be true, for now I am going to choose to believe that shits are being given.
A lot of these questions I was asked revolved around strategy, requiring a fair amount of numbers, charts, ICM programs, and other in depth analysis. Booooooooooorrrrrrrrrrrrrrrring. I mean no offense, those are obviously exreemely important questions and have everything to do with the reason why I can support myself playing poker for a living, but the explanation isn’t fun. Unless you really really like math.
Instead, I’m going to answer this question:
What does the normal day for abarone68 look like?
A few years back, I had a blog post where I mapped out the timeline of my entire day. Won’t be as precise here, but I figured something similar would work fine.
I wake up at 9, sometimes 9:30, sometimes 10, and sometimes (albeit rarely) even later. Obviously the exact time doesn’t matter to me unless there’s some special tournament (WCOOP, SCOOP, etc). Since quitting law school, I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve set an alarm clock. And if you haven’t tried it, I highly suggest waking up without an alarm blaring in your ear. It. Is. Glorious. The world would be a significantly better place if people slept in until their bodies were ready for consciousness rather than being slaves to an alarm clock.
I take the next half hour to get my wits about me. Even though I’m out of bed, it takes me fifteen minutes or so to actually feel awake. In the past I’ve tried playing right away and found that I’m not nearly as clear as I need to be and end up making some terrible plays so I now spend that time reviewing the previous day’s hand histories, checking e-mail, watching random Youtube videos, and seeing what happened in the world of Facebook.
Once I feel ready to go, I’ll either start a session or head to the gym. Often it depends on my mood and how well I’ve been running over the previous days/weeks. Have I been crushing? Then I’m eager to play, the gym can wait ’til later. Have I been getting crushed? I tell myself that I should go exercise so if I somehow continue to lose and go broke, at least I won’t be a fat tub of goo. It’s not exactly positive thinking, but it works.
Whether or not I go to the gym, I’ll grab an iced coffee from one of the local shops nearby and head back to my place to start the workday.
Caffeine is definitely my drug of choice, giving me that extra boost to load games with a “LET’S GO, LET’S DO THIS!!” mentality. The session can last anywhere from 2-8 hours, depending on a variety of factors. Most often I’ll play for 3-5 hours until my stomach’s growling can no longer be ignored, wind down, and grab a bite to eat.
From there, I usually play more. Traffic isn’t nearly as good as the first session, but that allows me to load a few more different game types, focus on difficult spots, and ultimately it’s more enjoyable. In total I’m grinding between 4-9 hours a day and for the better part of that time, it doesn’t even feel like a grind. Just feels fun. Obviously there are times when I’d rather be doing something else, but that’s if that happens — I stop playing and go do something else. Problem solved.
